State Department sources said today that most of the arms and munitions which the United States agreed last March to provide to Jordan had already been delivered. Officials insisted that the Israel Government had made no protest against the shipments and had been informed in advance. They said shipments to Jordan were continuing. The equipment delivered to Jordan included artillery and ammunition and there was speculation here today that some of the long-range guns pounding Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley and some of the shells dropping on them were of American origin.
Rep. William S. Broomfield, Michigan Republican, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urged the Administration today to halt immediately shipment of artillery and munitions to Jordan. The Congressman said there was evidence of “irresponsible” use of American arms by Jordan. He said shipments should be suspended “while the matter is placed under thorough review.” He said the U.S. should not “permit a situation in which American ammunition kills and maims Israeli farmers and villagers.”
(President Johnson, in Glassboro, N.J., deplored the renewed fighting in the Middle East and called for a peaceful settlement of Arab-Israel differences “which the nations of the region themselves should reach.”)
State Department experts who closely followed developments today along the Jordan-Israel cease-fire line reported that the action appeared to be a “limited retaliation” along the lines of the Israeli reprisal raid last March. It was expected that the State Department would urge both Israel and Jordan to exercise restraint.
Shortly before news was received here of the new outbreaks, Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin, who has just returned from a two-week visit in Israel, conferred with high State Department officials. He was understood to have reviewed the general situation with special reference to the problem of Jordan. He met with Under-Secretary of State Eugene Rostow, Assistant Secretary Lucius D. Battle and Assistant Secretary Joseph Sisco.
(The official Soviet Government newspaper, Izvestia, warned Israel today that “the situation in the Arab East is no longer what it was a year ago.” The paper reprinted reports from Al Ahram, the Cairo daily, alleging that Israel had massed 30,000 troops along the west bank of the Jordan River with supporting tanks and artillery and was preparing a new “large-scale provocation against Jordan.”)
Arab students were assembling here today for a one-day sit-in and hunger strike tomorrow at the Arab embassies in Washington. The demonstration, set for the first anniversary of the Six-Day War, was organized by the Arab student organization. The demonstrators were to demand immediate withdrawal of all Israelis from “Arab territory.” A student leader said the purpose of the strike was to press for a more militant policy by the Arab governments.
(West Bank Arab leaders were reported today to be still divided over whether to call a general strike for tomorrow. Clandestine leaflets urging a strike appeared yesterday in West Bank towns.)
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