Border clashes between Syrian and Jordan forces continued last night and this morning but not on the scale of the clashes late last week when Syria claimed the destruction of several Jordanian tanks. The Syrian armed foray reportedly stemmed from the crackdown by King Hussein of Jordan against the last remnants of organized terrorist groups in Jordan. King Hussein was reported to have demanded an end to the campaign by other Arab countries of political and economic pressures against Jordan as one of the terms of his proposed new agreement for a settlement with the Palestinian terrorist groups. However, the Lebanese-owned Middle East Airlines temporarily suspended service from Beirut to Amman after receiving an anonymous threat. The airline has been the only carrier flying the two cities since Syria barred its airspace last week to the Royal Jordanian Airline. The airline company said in a statement it had decided to suspend flights to Jordan temporarily because the “prevailing reported unrest” requires it to safeguard its passengers, crews and aircraft. Iraq barred Jordanian planes previously.
According to another report, Hussein’s plan for a new pact with the guerrilla groups requires that he be recognized by all terrorist groups as the unquestioned sovereign and representative for Palestinians on both sides of the Jordan River, thus including the residents of the occupied West Bank. It was also reported that Egypt sent its Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Saad el din Shazli, to Damascus less than 24 hours after a visit there by the Egyptian War Minister, Gen. Mohammed Sadek. The Egyptian moves were considered here as an effort by Egypt to retain the initiative in seeking to cool off the evident Syrian desire for a military showdown with Hussein. Two official mediators on behalf of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, State Minister Omar Sakkaf and special emissary Hassan Sabri el Khouli out short a visit to Damascus and flew to Saudi Arabia for talks with King Feisal. The Beirut daily, Al Nahar, blamed the Soviet Union for the Jordanian-Syrian border clashes. The daily said that after the “fiasco” in Sudan, where an aborted coup led to a crackdown against the Communist party there, the Soviet Union ordered its Syrian “satellites” to threaten Jordan to prove that Soviet power in the Arab countries was not on the wane.
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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.
