State Department sources today declined comment on reports of a proposed unified Arab military command that would link five Arab states hostile to Israel but voiced assurances that the United States was devoted to the preservation of Israel.
These sources cited the strong pro-Israel sentiment in the United States Congress. They reiterated American interest, expressed last week by Secretary of State Dean Rusk, in the security of Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Officials held, however, that any comment on a proposed unified Arab military high command linking Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen and Algeria would be premature and excessively speculative.
It was meanwhile indicated that the Department is comforted by what it sees as an anti-Communist tendency apparent in the Iraqi and Syrian upheavals. The Department does not necessarily interpret “Arab Socialism” and Arab unity moves negatively. However, the Department is continuing to press for withdrawal of Nasser’s Egyptian forces from Yemen and for disengagement of Saudi Arabia and Jordan which are charged with supplying arms to Yemeni loyalist forces.
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