While Israelis here refused flatly to be drawn into any discussion regarding the impending union of Jordan and Iraq, Western diplomats here were inclined today to believe that the prospective union might be an unfavorable development for Israel.
Many Western informants at the United Nations were of the opinion that the move to bring Iraq and Jordan together might have been engineered by the United States in the hope of forming a counter-group against the United Arab Republic of Egypt and Syria. Several Western diplomats pointed out that, since both Jordan and Iraq as separate states are dependent on the United States for military aid, a merger would not be permitted by Washington to use its military strength for an attack on Israel.
Some diplomats here were conceding that Israel was in danger nevertheless, since if one of the Arab blocs did attack Israel, the counter-bloc would be sorely tempted to display Arab “unity” by a similar aggressive action or another border. These same diplomats, however, were of the opinion that a Western-oriented Iraq-Jordan could be kept in check.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
