U.S. MIDDLE EAST PLAN

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28258, 22 April 1957, Page 11

U.S. MIDDLE EAST PLAN

Eight-Nation Support (Rec. 11 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 20. The State Department said yesterday that eight Middle East Governments had “declared their desire to associate themselves” with President Eisenhower’s programme for protecting the Middle East region against Communist aggression. The department announced that it had sent an interim report to six Congressional committees on the results so far of the Middle East mission of Mr James Richards, former chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. The department did not make public the text of the report, but issued a statement which officials said summarised its contents. “The results of the mission to date are impresive,” the department said. “As the public joint communiques (issued by Mr Richards and each of the governments he has visited) demonstrate, the governments covered by the interim report have declared their desire to associate themselves with the President’s programme for the Middle East. “It is particularly gratifying that so many of the countries have made known their opposition to international communism.” The eight countries covered by the report are Lebanon, Libya, Turkey, Persia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. French Leave Cyprus.—The last contingent of French forces brought to Cyprus during the Suez emergency last year sailed today from Famagusta to Marseilles. There were 333 paratroopers in the party.—Nicosia, April 20.