Syria announced yesterday it had completed “all preparations” to counter “any attack” by Israel, it was reported here today from Baghdad. More Syrian troops reportedly have been moved up to the Syrian border facing Israel. A Baghdad Radio broadcast has issued a call for uniting Syrian, Iraqi and Egyptian armed forces against Israel.
The Daily Telegraph reported that Jordanian authorities were deeply concerned over the possibility that the unstable leftist Syrian regime might provoke a war with Israel, which would involve all the Arab states. The Telegraph declared that tension between Israel and the Arab states was “higher today than at any time since Suez” in 1956. It also reported that Syria had been “inciting the Palestine Liberation Organization to intensify attacks on Israel, and to stage them so as to involve Jordan more deeply than Syria.
The Telegraph also reported that Premier Yussef Zayyan, of Syria, had armed groups of Syrian workers “on the patterns of Communist China’s Red Guards,” and that President Nasser of Egypt seemed to be with the Syrian regime in its “firebrand policy” against Israel. Maj. Gen. Ahmed Sweidani, the Syrian chief of staff, was quoted as saying that the Syrian population would soon form “an armed front from the Israeli border in the south to the Turkish border in the north.” He added that threats by Israel or King Hussein in Jordan “do not frighten us.”
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
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.
