After six arduous days and nights of debate and inner conflict, the 13 Arab kings and other heads of state, who have met at Alexandria to formulate plans for “liberating” Palestine from Israeli control and for building water projects that could negate Israel’s national water carrier and its partial use of Jordan River waters, has come to a close with no concrete accomplishments, dispatches received here today from Egypt reported.
Under pressures from Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Arab League’s secretary-general, Abdel Khalek Hassouna, the summit meeting did adopt a two-pronged plan. One was to authorize construction of a dam on the Yarmuk River in Jordan, one of the main tributaries of the Jordan River. But no time table for the start of work on that dam was fixed. Furthermore, out of an estimated cost of $17,500,000 needed for other water-diversion projects, only $8,500,000 has been pledged so far, a spokesman for the Arab League said at Alexandria.
As for the unified Arab command set up by the Arab League for war against Israel, there was still more ambiguity about how it would be organized, how it would be financed, and when it might be ready for an anti-Israeli war. The summit meeting approved unanimously, in principle, the establishment of an army of Palestinians “to liberate Palestine and take part in the next round of the Arab fight against Israel.” But one of the major conference participants, representing Syria, conceded when asked when the “next round” could start: “Only a man living in a dream world or a fool would ask for an immediate attack.”
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.
