Tunisia’s President Habib Bourguiba called this weekend again for an end to the Arab insistence on a continued state of belligerency against Israel, and by implication blamed Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser for precipitating the June war by refusing to recognize the existence of Israel.
His blast came as the foreign ministers of most Arab states convened again at Khartoum, Sudan, to plan a long-postponed Arab summit meeting, now scheduled to open at Khartoum this Tuesday. Dispatches received here today from Khartoum said that some of the Arab Foreign Ministers were disturbed by the timing of Mr. Bourguiba’s statement on the very eve of their planned summit meeting.
Addressing a rally in Tunisia, Bourguiba said: “Policies adopted hitherto have led all Arabs to consider Israel as an aggressor. On the contrary, it is believed that it was Egypt which created the casus belli, insisting that the very existence of Israel constitutes an aggression. The State of Israel has been recognized by both the United States and Soviet Russia. It is a United Nations member, and its existence is challenged only by Arab countries. In these circumstances, it is useless to continue ignoring this reality and claim that Arabs must wipe Israel off the map. In so doing, one drives himself to near-total isolation.”
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