Britain Backs Hussein

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28262, 27 April 1957, Page 11

Britain Backs Hussein

.. LONDON, April 25. Britain said today that Jordan’s independence and integrity were essential elements in maintaining Middle East peace.

The statement came from a British Foreign Office spokesman in reply to correspondents’ questions.

The spokesman, asked if Britain had offered any aid to Jordan in the present pol.tical crisis, said “So far as I am aware, we have received no request for assistance.”

The statement followed a similar declaration from President Eisenhower last night. King Hussein yesterday charged “international Communism with the responsibility for the current events in Jordan.”

Syria has about 5000 troops stationed in Jordan. Iraq is reported to have 12,000 on Jordan's eastern frontier.

Syria’s President, Shukri el Kouatly, left Egypt for Saudi Arabia today, Reuter reported from Cairo.

President Kouatly and President Nasser are believed to have discussed the United States Sixth Fleet’s hurried return to the Eastern Mediterranean during a fourhour talk last night. President Kouatly was accompanied to Saudi Arabia by an Egyptian delegation headed by the general secretary of the Moslem Congress, Colonel Anwar Sadat. President Kouatly is expected to go on from Saudi Arabia to Jordan. Observers in Cairo interpreted his journey to the Arab capitals as an attempt to save Arab unity, badly shaken by the events in Jordan. King Hussein, in a broadcast, warned Jordanians against sub-' versive influences aiming to destroy the country, and accused the political parties of taking orders from outside Jordan. The Jordan crisis was completely internal, and he would not allow anyone outside to interfere in Jordan’s affairs, he said. The “Manchester Guardian” today accused Egypt and Syria of “playing with fire” in an intrigue over Jordan and predicted that the plotting inside Jordan might eventually benefit King Hussein.