Two major issues affecting Israel were unresolved in questioning by reporters at the State Department today. On the matter of Premier Menachem Begin’s plan to move his offices to East Jerusalem, the State Department hedged in its reaction saying “the precise question is whether the government of Israel has such plans.” When spokesman Thomas Reston was pressed further, he noted that the U.S. Embassy is in Tel Aviv.
Reston said he would supply a response later to the question raised by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on what appears to be a contradiction on Palestine Liberation Organization strikes from Jordan into Israel. A senior State Department of finial said last Wednesday while King Hussein was in Washington that the King had pledged he would not allow the PLO to use Jordanian soil to launch terrorist attacks.
Yesterday when he was asked whether he had promised this to President Carter, the King replied, “Nothing was said, no.” When he was asked again whether it is correct that he would refuse to allow the PLO to use Jordan, the King replied, “I can only tell you that as of this point in time no Jordanian policy has been adopted as to be different to that that has prevailed for a period in the recent past.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
