A spokesman for the French Government declared today that the 1950 Tripartite Agreement guaranteeing present Israel-Arab borders against violent change remains valid despite its denunciation yesterday by President Nasser of the United Arab Republic, (In Washington, it was similarly stated that the U.S. Government considers the Tripartite pact still valid.)
Nasser, in a speech in Damascus celebrating the second anniversary of the merger of Egypt and Syria in the UAR, said”1 declare in the name of the Arab people that the declaration is dead and buried in the soil and blood of Port Said.” This was understood to be a reference to the battle fought at the port in the 1956 Sinai operation when British troops captured the city.
The French spokesman said that Nasser was not a party to the 1950 agreement between the United Stats, Britain and France and therefore “has nothing to say about whether it is in force or not.”
The UAR president was understood to have made the declaration in response to a statement by Selwyn Lloyd, British Foreign Secretary who said in the House of Commons last week that the Tripartite Agreement signatories had, in talks since the Egyptian-Syrian merger, agreed that the agreement remained valid.
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