A Foreign Office spokesman today described as “utterly fantastic” Syrian charges of secret Jordan-Israel talks on the Arab refugee problem. He said that the Israel Government “knows nothing about such negotiations.”
The spokesman described the official attitude of the Israel Government toward the rash of Arab charges as one of considering the accusations as part of cold war tactics directed by the Soviets and intended to keep up tensions in the Middle East. He said the Government believes the goal of the effort was to bring Jordan into the camp of pro-Soviet Arab states headed by Egypt and Syria.
The spokesman said that anti-Jordan radio propaganda from Cairo and Damascus was monitored in Jerusalem and, together with Jordanian anti-Israel propaganda attacks was re-broadcast by Israel on its Arabic transmission laxities “to prove that Egypt and Syria have no monopoly of anti-Israel feeling.” Israel put into operation this week a powerful new radio transmitter aimed at complete coverage of the Arab world including remote sheikdoms in the Persian Gulf.
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