Israel and Syria exchanged vigorous verbal blows here today as an aftermath of Israel’s attack on Syrian outposts on Lake Tiberias, and Syria has called upon the Security Council to meet “as soon as possible in order to take the measures necessary to meet this serious situation.”
Israel’s side of the story was told in a background paper issued by a delegation spokesman here, reporting that “for years” Syrian authorities have violated the armistice agreement, and that in the last 18 months there have been many incidents of firing against Israelis by Syrian outposts which attacked fishermen and police launches with the resultant loss of a number of Israel dead and wounded.
These attacks, Israel pointed out, have continued in spite of the fact that September 8 of this year Israel’s Chief of Staff and Maj. Gen. E.L.M. Burns, UN truce chief, reached an agreement permitting the Israelis the use of armored police launches, equipped with light arms, on Lake Tiberias, which is totally within Israel territory.
Syria’s presentations here were of a double nature, consisting of the letter to the Security Council by Rafik Asha, the permanent representative here for Damascus, and a press conference by A###ed Shukairy, chairman of the Syrian delegation here. Mr. Shukairy said that the “measures Syria will suggest to the Security Council, at the proper time,” are steps that have probably never been requested before. He refused to elaborate on the nature of these “measures,” but declared that Syria will decide what to do next after the Security Council had considered implementation of those “measures.”
He termed the Israeli retaliatory raid “outrageous” and declared that its “atrocious character” was indicated by the fact that Israel employed air, naval and ground forces in the action. He declared that the Syrian casualties comprised 49 dead, including five officers, 32 enlisted men, and 12 civilians, including three women; eight soldiers wounded, and 30 taken prisoner.
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