The Israel Government takes “the most serious view” of the deterioration of relations between Israel and Jordan following Jordan’s refusal to compromise on a Negev territorial dispute in the Mixed Armistice Commission yesterday and an outbreak of shooting by Arab Legionnaires in the Jerusalem area which has cost five Jewish victims in the last 48 hours.
A session of the Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission yesterday ended in complete deadlock when the Jordanian delegation refused to accept a compromise formula worked out by United Nations truce chief Gen. William E. Riley to settle temporarily the clash over ownership of a disputed area in the southern desert near “Kilometer 78” on the road to Eilath.
Gen. Riley’s proposal, which Israel had agreed to accept, was that the disputed area remain within the territorial jurisdiction of the Arab state, but not the entire stretch of road which Jordan claimed. The Jordanians refused to accept this proposal and threatened to carry the case to the U.N. Security Council. Col. Bonnet do bidder, United Nations chairman of the commission, warned the Jordanians against unilateral action. The session ended without discussion of Israel’s complaints on the Jerusalem shootings and with no date fixed for a new meeting.
“Israel takes the most serious view of the aggressive attitude displayed by the Jordan delegation at yesterday’s session of the Mixed Armistice Commission–particularly in the light of the latest offensive demonstrations committed by Arab Legionnaires in Jerusalem, resulting in the loss of Jewish life,” the Israel spokesman commented today.
“It is obvious that if the Jordan Government persists in its unilateral action claiming possession of the disputed stretch near Kilometer 78 on the Eilath road, the Israel authorities will draw the appropriate conclusions,” he warned, “particularly if the Jordan delegation in the Mixed Armistice Commission will provoke ultimate dissolution of this body through refusal to discuss pending problems until the Kilometer 78 dispute is solved according to their specific wishes.”
The Jordanian authorities notified the Mixed Armistice Commission today that they would file a “strong protest” against the alleged “retaliatory raid” by Jewish irregulars on the Arab village of Shaafat, one kilometer south of Jerusalem. According to the Jordanians, three buses were blown up and several Arab inhabitants were killed or wounded.
The Jordanians said they would demand an extraordinary meeting of the Mixed Armistice Commission but it is not certain that the meeting can be held after Jordan’s refusal yesterday to discuss the Wadi Arabs dispute discontinued the commission’s activities.
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