U.S. Charges Soviet with “subversion” Against Israel, Arab States

The United States today made known that it has handed a note to the Soviet Foreign Ministry telling the Russians that it was their own “aggressive actions” and “subversion” against Israel and the Arab states which brought about the Allied plan to create a Middle East Command.

The U.S. note was submitted at Moscow yesterday along with notes from Turkey, France, and Britain, which are co-sponsors of the projected Middle Eastern Command. The note cited negotiations between the Soviet Union and the Nazis in 1940 to create a Soviet sphere of influence in the Middle East as evidence of Communist designs on that area. The American note said that the Russian attitude since the end of World War II causes the State Department to believe that aims set forth in 1940 “remain the policy of the Soviet Government.”

The Allied notes were in reply to Soviet notes which warned that a Middle East Command would be considered “aggressive” and that the Russians viewed as groundless the western contention that a Soviet threat exists to the Middle East. The anti-Communist powers accused the Soviet Union of attempting, through her protests against the proposed command, to frighten Middle Eastern states from joining with the West in such an arrangement.

American diplomats consider the Moscow strategy to be aimed at the exploitation of hostility between the Arab states and Israel and strife between Egypt and Britain. The American note said, “the recent Soviet threats to these states, warning against their participation in the Middle East Command, constitute interferences in the affairs of these countries.”

The notes of the four powers rejected the Russian assertion that the proposed command would be an aggressive organization and stressed that rather than being aggressive, the command was based on provisions of the United Nations Charter for collective action in defense of world peace.