Eban: Nasser Trying to Frighten World into Withholding Support for Israel

Foreign Minister Abba Eban said yesterday that President Gamal Abdel Nasser, of Egypt, was trying to frighten the world into holding back support for Israel. Mr. Eban referred to a speech by Nasser on Friday in which he warned that if the United States wants peace it must force Israel to withdraw from occupied Arab territory and failing that, must “end all out support for Israel.” The Egyptian leader addressed workers at a May Day rally on the site of a factory that was hit by Israeli bombers a month ago. He claimed that Egyptian forces had regained the initiative against Israel, ridiculed, but did not deny. Israel’s report that Russian pilots were flying missions over Egypt in Egyptian planes and threatened that Egypt would strike at Israeli civilian centers if necessary.

Mr. Eban remarked that Col. Nasser still hopes to carry out his plans to destroy Israel which he announced in May, 1967, but this time with Soviet aid. “His speech made it clear to those who still need proof that he is responsible for the continued conflict in the Middle East,” Mr. Eban said. He accused President Nasser of keeping Israel’s desire for a negotiated settlement from the Egyptian people. “Today’s cease-fire lines are the result of past Arab aggression.” the Israeli Foreign Minister said. In his May Day speech President Nasser described Israel’s report on Soviet pilots as “a great comedy.” He said, “The Soviet Union is not helping us to launch aggression. The Soviet Union is helping us to liberate our lands. Our right to liberate our land is legitimate.” Col. Nasser emphasized, “I pledge to President Nixon.we have not closed the door on America forever.” He warned, however, that if the U.S. supplied more aircraft to Israel “she will force on the Arabs an irrevocable position, one that would effect Arab-American relations for tens or hundreds of years.”

ALLON WARNS EGYPT THAT SOVIET AID COULD LEAD TO TURNING EGYPT INTO VASSAL STATE

(According to reports from London, Igor Belyayev, Pravda’s Middle East expert, writing in the Communist Party’s newspaper Friday castigated Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban for contending that the Soviet Union was responsible for increasing tensions in the Mideast because of its increased military aid to Egypt. Mr. Belyayev, however, made no direct comment on Israel’s assertion that Russian pilots were flying operational missions in Egypt nor did his article take note of reports that Soviet forces were manning SAM-3 missile installations in Israel. On Friday, U.S. Ambassador in Moscow, Jacob D. Beam, acting on instructions by Secretary of State William P. Rogers, presented to Soviet officials the administration’s expression of grave concern over the Mideast situation. Diplomatic circles in London observed that President Nixon’s “political authority” was undermined with his announcement of sending American troops into Cambodia. They speculated that the Soviet government could use this action to justify their intervention in the Middle East.)

Deputy Premier Yigal Allon declared Thursday night that the Egyptians had at least as much reason to be worried about Soviet flyers piloting Egyptian warplanes as do the Israelis because if the “concrete and progressive Soviet involvement” continued, the day was not far off when President Nasser would become vassal to the Russians. Speaking at the annual spring meeting of leaders of Galilee communities at Kibutz Genoser, Gen. Allon added that the doctrine propounded by Soviet party leader Leonid Brezhnev that the Soviet Union was entitled to intervene in the affairs of dependent states might be applied to Egypt. He declared that sometimes the Soviets entered a country “without an invitation”–as in the invasion of Czechoslovakia–and sometimes at the invitation of a country’s leaders, acting “in a moment of weakness,” as in Egypt. Once the Soviets get into a country, “they are in no hurry” to get out, he added.” He asked whether Nasser had reached such a state of despair that he preferred to “mortgage” his people and his country to a foreign power rather than conclude an honorable peace with Israel.