The Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission announced today that agreement had been reached on the Wadi Arabia dispute which had deadlocked the commission and had threatened its collapse.
The dispute involved ownership of a stretch of territory in the southern desert along which part of the Israeli road to Eilath, on the Gulf of Akaba, traversed. Previously, the Jordanians had refused to accept a compromise settlement proposed by United Nations trace officials and had refused to attend further meetings of the armistice commission until the dispute was settled in their favor.
Under the agreement reached today at an informal meeting, one-half kilometer of the road–about two-thirds of the stretch in dispute–is to be considered Jordanian territory without prejudice to a final peace settlement adjudication. Israel traffic will cases using this part of the road on February 25.
The meeting also took up the complaints by both Israel and Jordan of border violations resulting in numerous acts of violence and issued a statement condemning these acts and deploring the turn for the worse in relations between the two states. It drew attention to the need for measure to prevent recurrence of such actions.
The complaints were considered disposed of as the Deputy Chiefs of Staff of both armies will meet here tomorrow to discuss steps to prevent further incidents. Israel will be represented by Brigadier Mordecai Mackleff, accompanied by two other high-ranking officers. Jordan will be represented by Lieut. Gen. Abdul Kedir Pashael Jundi, deputy to Glubb Pasha, commander of the Arab Legion; Lieut Col. Mohammed Bay Maita and Capt. Janaan.
The commission also found a way out of the impasse created by the question of the agenda. Both parties empowered the United Nations chairman of the commission to decide what complaints to place on the agenda at an emergency meeting of the commission to avoid further deadlock.
Col. Bennett de Ridder, chairman of the commission, thanked the delegations today and described today’s actions as the greatest forward step taken in a year. He recalled that Maj. Gen. Thomas E. Riley, U.N. Truce chief, will submit his report to the U.N. Security Council this week-end on the commission’s work.
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.
