Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser told British television viewers, on a program broadcast last night by BBC, that Israel has a 24-megawatt atomic reactor which produces plutonium and that, for that reason, the Arab countries must begin work in the nuclear field.
He told one of the BBC interviewers, who had taped the program at Heliopolis, outside Cairo, that he was “seriously afraid” that the Arabs would have to engage in a preventive war against Israel if Israel acquires nuclear bombs. The Egyptian leader claimed that his Government had agreed to United Nations proposals against the spread of nuclear weapons, “but Israel refused.”
Asked whether he saw any chances for a compromise between the Arab states and Israel. Mr. Nasser replied: “Well, the Arabs of Palestine want to return to their homeland, to regain their property.” Since the Israelis “refuse to admit a single Arab to return,” he declared, “the only solution is force.”
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.
