State Department sources today indicated confirmation of a Cairo report that Egypt has signed a new contract with Communist Czechoslovakia, this time to buy $230,000,000 worth of munitions in the next five years. The original $80,000,000 contract was announced September 27. Premier Nasser reportedly signed the new pact with Richard Dvorak, Czech Minister of Foreign Trade.
It is feared by diplomatic sources that the new contract would increase the chances of an arms race while, permitting the Soviet bloc to gain further influence in Egypt. The new contract is thought to cover jet aircraft sufficient to give Egypt dominance over Israel even if Israel is able to buy all the jet planes it seeks from the United States.
Reports reaching here from Amman, capital of Jordan, state that the Defense Ministry there announced that the Jordanian Air Force had received two vampire jet fighter planes from Britain and that a second shipment of eight jet planes will be delivered in the next few days. The jet planes are being furnished to Jordan under the Anglo-Jordan treaty. Jordanian pilots have been trained by the British Royal Air Force.
In Chicago, the Secretary General of the Arab League declared today that Egypt’s arms agreement with Czechoslovakia is “grossly misconstrued, misinterpreted, and misrepresented in the United States by Israel spokesmen and Zionist propagandists. “H.E. Abdul Khalik Hassouna, addressing the Institute of Middle Eastern Affairs, claimed that “It was Israeli aggression which made Egypt’s need for arms vital and her request urgent.”
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.
