The Syrian radio denied in broadcasts today an official United Nations report stating it had agreed with Israel yesterday to “respect and observe the cease-fire” between the two countries.
The U.N. report was issued yesterday by a spokesman for the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization after Israel and Syria had concluded a meeting of the Israeli-Syrian Mixed Armistice Commission which lasted more than five hours at a Syrian customs house not far from B’not Yaacov, Israel. While that meeting was under way, Syrian authorities refused to provide details about the session to newsmen, declaring that any Syrian statement on the results of the session would be broadcast over Radio Damascus.
Today, Radio Damascus said it does not recognize the U.N. spokesman’s statement or the communique issued after the ISMAC session by Lt. Gen. Odd Bull, chief of staff of the U.N. truce body. The Syrian radio spokesman charged that, at yesterday’s meeting, Israel “had tried to bring up the Palestine question as a whole,” presenting “general and unspecific proposals which Syria regards as inconsistent with the purpose of the meeting.”
Syria, said the broadcaster, tried to “expose Israel’s aggression to preserve the right of Syrian farmers to plow their land in the demilitarized zone in a calm atmosphere.” Dam ascus, he stated, would not “guarantee the security of the Zionist criminals.”
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