Although Iraq is signatory to an anti-Communist defense pact, many leading Iraqis are contributing to the Egyptian arms fund drive which will be used to buy arms from the Communist bloc, according to a Bagdad broadcast today.
The Iraqi Ambassador here, said last week after seeing Secretary of State Dulles that Iraq would prefer to buy arms from the West but does not mind taking arms from its enemy.”
Impending new arms shipments to Iraq, announced by Britain last week, constitute a new threat to Israel, according to the Christian Science Monitor. It noted that while “Whitehall specifically has said these arms to Iraq in no way are intended to bolster the Arabs at large against Israel,” should war break out between Israel and Egypt, “almost certainly Iraq would enter the fray, strengthened presumably by whatever new arms it receives from Britain.”
Meanwhile, it was reported here that Egyptian spokesmen may be telling the truth in insisting that Communist military instructors and technicians will not accompany the arms arriving in Egypt. Reports have been received here of arrangements to train Egyptian air force and army personnel in Czechoslovakia.
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