Foreign Minister Abba S. Eban was quoted today as declaring that if diplomatic efforts to release the two Israeli passengers on a hijacked Transworld flight still detained in Syria prove ineffective, Israel will have to consider other methods of action. The Washington Evening Star correspondent said that while Mr. Eban did not specifically mention military action against Syria, he “hinted that Damascus is very near to the Israel-Syrian cease-fire line and therefore this case is not similar to last year’s hijacking of an El Al Israeli plane to Algiers which is a very distant place.”
The report quoted Mr. Eban as declaring that Israel placed reliance on American diplomatic activity. “The responsibility lies with the U.S. Government under whose flag the aircraft was flying, and with TWA which had undertaken to bring the passengers to their destination,” he said. He added that as long as the United States and TWA were making a major effort to secure the release of the detained Israelis, “we shall obviously cooperate with this effort.”
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.
