Secretary of State John Foster Dulles indicated at his press conference today that there is a plan, acceptable to Israel, which may prevent further clashes between Syria and Israel in the Lake Huleh area. He said that the flare-ups along the Israel-Syrian border arise primarily from irrigation work being carried out by Israel in a demilitarized zone the precise limits of which are not altogether clear, but probably involve a few hundred yards.
Asked whether he has considered the advisability of proposing the stationing of United Nations Emergency Forces along the Israel-Syrian border, as was done on the Israel-Egyptian frontier, Secretary Dulles replied: “I don’t know of any consideration being given to that proposal at the present time. I would hope, and we have considerable reason to hope, that this matter can be settled through the United Nations machinery that is already there.”
“There is a plan,” Mr. Dulles said, “to have a survey made which would permit of delimiting with greater accuracy just exactly what are the boundaries of the neutralized zone, and there is an indication of the willingness of the Israeli Government to comply with whatever is the result of that survey. So I would hope that the matter could be worked out in an amicable way and without such a rather major operation that would be required to establish new units of the UNEF in that area.”
Meanwhile, U.S. official sources revealed that American diplomats in Israel and Syria are urging restraint. An evaluation of possible wider implications of the Syrian-Israel border affair has been requested from the American Embassy in Cairo, U. A. R. capital, by the State Department.
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