Accusations made by Dmitri Shepilov Soviet Foreign Minister, who has charged Israel with concentrating troops on the Jordanian and Syrian borders are “a complete fabrication,” a spokesman for the Israeli delegation declared here today.
Pointing out that these accusations were first voiced by Syria’s representative last week when the General Assembly was debating Russia’s attacks on Hungarian freedom fighters, the spokesman declared that Mr. Shepilov’s latest accusation is “ominous in the extreme.” The spokesman pointed out that these false accusations “raise anxious speculation concerning the purpose for which the pretext is invented.”
Israel requested immediately after Syria made the charges that United Nations observers investigate the truth or falsity of the charges that Israel had concentrated troops in the areas bordering on Jordan and Syria. Within two days the UN observers reported to Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold, after visiting various sectors of the Israel defense lines within several miles of the borders, that “traffic on the roads was normal and there was nothing which indicated a military build-up in the Israel settlements that were visited.”
The spokesman pointed out that it was several days before either Syria or Jordan would permit a similar UN investigation on their territory, and that so far no reports have come from the UN observers there. Israeli diplomats today discussed the Soviet-Syrian-Jordanian threats, pointing out that past history and experience have shown that false accusations of this type preceded aggressive-attacks by those who voiced the original charges.
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.
