Syrian Ambassador Farid Zeineddine today told the State Department that his country would follow Egypt’s example and conclude an arms deal with the Communist countries if the United States sells weapons to Israel. At the same time he urged the U.S. Government “to curb” the Zionist movement in this country.
In a lengthy meeting with George V. Allen, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, the Syrian Ambassador reiterated the same arguments presented yesterday by the Egyptian Ambassador, He registered “strong opposition” to an American security guarantee of Israel’s frontiers. He said it would mean an “alliance with Israel to support and sustain by military force Israel’s policy in the Middle East.” Suchta pact, the Syrian envoy declared, would “adversely affect American-Syrian relations and for that matter, American-Arab relations, to the furthest extent possible.”
The Syrian envoy said he told Mr. Allen that “Zionism seeks with some successes to make of the United States and in the United States a center for its world-wide activity which is inimical to other states and which is morally unfounded.” He urged that the United States “find it fit to look into this matter in view of its international implications.” He stressed that the Arabs were especially anxious to see the United States Government look into tax exemptions by Jewish charity contributors. He claimed such deductions really supported “a foreign political movement.”
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