ARAB RIFT REPORT

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28265, 1 May 1957, Page 13

ARAB RIFT REPORT

Attitude Of Hussein (Rec. 11 p.m.) WASHINGTON. April 30. A Jordan Embassy spokesman today declined to comment on a report in the “New York Times” that King Hussein of Jordan had refused to meet the leaders of Egypt and Syria. The report said that an Egyptian and Syrian proposal for such a meeting was relayed to King Hussein by King Saud of Saudi Arabia.

The Jordan spokesman, Mr Mahmoud Rousan, Minister at the Embassy, said he knew nothing about any basis for the report. A State Department official in close touch with Middle East affairs also denied knowledge of such a development. In its report, a Washington dispatch by Dana Adams Schmidt, the “New York Times” said that King Hussein in refusing the Egyptian and Syrian leaders, had replied that this was hardly the time for such a meeting.

The dispatch, which quoted diplomatic sources, said King Hussein had flown to the Saudi Arabian capital for two reasons —to obtain a personal report on the visits to King Saud by missions representing President Nasser of Egypt and President El-Kuwatly of Syria, and to inform King Saud of alleged Syrian and Egyptian subversive activities inside Jordan.