King Hussein of Jordan today delivered a series of sharp blasts at the United Arab Republic, accusing its President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, of following the Communist line in the Middle East. The Jordanian ruler also discussed the Palestine refugee question, accusing Israel of failure to carry out U.N. resolutions. But his main fire was directed against UAR President Nasser.
Obviously disregarding heavy Arab pressures which, since his arrival here Friday, attempted to convince him that, in the interests of Arab “unity,” he should withhold criticism of the United Arab Republic, King Hussein told the General Assembly plenary session that he could not keep silent on the “local quarrel” between Nasser and Jordan. That dispute endangers peace in the Middle East and threatens world peace as a whole, he affirmed.
“From the very beginning,” he stated, “the aim of our sister state has been our destruction.” He said the hostility of the U.A.R. against Jordan dates from the time, he, Hussein, spoke out clearly against Jordanian alignment with the Communist bloc or Communist ideology.
Jordan, he said, has been subjected by the U.A.R. “to abuse, pressures of many kinds, incitements by radio and other means, and subversion.” He cited the fact that Jordanian Prime Minister Majali and 11 other persons were killed recently by a bomb explosion, and tied up those assassinations with U.A.R. policies directed against Jordan.
Coming to “The Palestine Question,” King Hussein treated that subject with comparative mildness. “The world,” he said, “has closed and continues to close its eyes to the tragedy of humanity in the Middle East, the tragedy of the Arab refugees.”
“Nothing has been done by the United Nations to bring pressure upon Israel to live up to U.N. resolutions. Israel must live up to those resolutions. There can be no peace in the Middle East without a just solution of the refugee problem,” King Hussein stated.
NASSER MAY RETURN TO CAIRO TODAY; WILL NOT TOUR UNITED STATES
Nasser, who absented himself from the Assembly during Hussein’s speech, will leave New York for Cairo either tomorrow or the next day, according to Arab circles here. Thus, Nasser’s projected tour through the United States has been called off.
In attacking Nasser today at the U.N. Assembly, King Hussein said that tensions between Jordan and the United Arab Republic began several years ago when he had warned the people of Jordan against “Communist penetration” into the area. After that warning, he declared, Jordan found itself subjected to “abuse, subversion and external pressures.” He could only interpret these acts, he emphasized, as a U.A.R. effort aimed at the destruction of Jordan.
The U.A.R., he charged, is seeking to dominate the Arab part of the world and, if it succeeded, “either as a neutral or as an openly avowed Communist ally,” it would destroy the basic aims of the Arab people. “Better ways,” he told the Assembly, “must be found to bring the combined weight of public opinion quickly and effectively to bear upon whatever nation transgresses agreed upon interrelationships.” However, he made it clear he is not requesting immediate action from the United Nations on the disagreement between Jordan and the U.A.R.
In regard to Israel, the Jordanian king said that “the original failure of the United Nations” went back to the partition resolution of 1947 which, he claimed, “left in its wake a sorrowfully unresolved situation.” He insisted it was “morally wrong and politically unjust in 1947 to partition Palestine, and it is no less so today.”
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.
