CEASE FIRE REJECTED

Chronicle (Levin), 20 July 1948, Page 5

CEASE FIRE REJECTED

(N.Z.P.A.-

Reuter .

Syri? And Iraq Oppose Palestipg Truce

Coxairight)

Received Tuesday, 10.25 a.m. LONPON, July 19. The Iraqi and Syrian Governments have rejected the c,ease fire and truce for Palestine. An official statement issued in Baghdad today said that the Arab League ppliticql cpmjnittee accepted the cease fire by a majority vote. The Iraqi and Syrian Governments opposed the decision and rejected the truce, while the Saudi-Arabian, Egyptian, Transjordan, Lebanon and Yemen Governments accepted. The British United Press correspondent in Damascus says that Syrian publit opinion overwhelmingly favours a continuation of the Palestine struggle. Youth organisations in Damascus staged large-scale protests against the Arab States' acceptance of the truce. In Haifa today an Israeli spokesman said that the Israeli Army would consider itself at liberty to attack the Syrian Army wherever it was. The llaganah Command had decided notjo cease fighting until the Syrians were repulsed. The spokesman's statement followed an alleged serious breach of the truce by Syrians near the Syrian border, in Upper Galilee. The Cairo -newspaper, A1 Ahram, in an editorial today, said that the cease fire in Palestine was only a stage in a long struggle during which the Zionists would suffer more than they had already sufferecl. Another newspaper, A1 Misra, declared that the Arabs accepted the cease fire under British and. American pressure. Britain and America had won the enmity of the Arabs. An Egyptian Foreign Office spokesman said that Britain and the United States had suspended the trade talks with Egypt, and added that the"probable motive in both cases is pressure on Egypt in connection with the Palestine question."