IRAQI-SYRIAN FRONTIER

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25833, 18 June 1949, Page 7

IRAQI-SYRIAN FRONTIER

REPORTS OF TENSION

COLONEL ZAIM ADMITS “ PRECAUTIONS ” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, June 15. Tension between Syria and Iraq has created anxiety in Arab League circles, says Reuter’s correspondent in Paris. Syria’s Minister to Egypt informed the Secretary-General of the Arab League <Azzam Pasha) to-day of reported Iraq troop concentrations on the Iraqi-Syrian frontier. Arab diplomatic circles in Paris say that they are confounded by the “expansionist policy’’ of the Iraqi Prime Minister (General Nuri Said). According to Reuter’s correspondent in Damascus, the Syrian Prime Minister (Colonel Husni Zaim) said today that Syria had taken necessary precautions to safeguard her frontiers. The situation between Syria and Iraq might lead to an outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East and evenually to a world conflict because the major Powers could not afford to remain disinterested.

Colonel Zaim said: “I have received assurances of moral and material support from Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the event of a clash with Iraq. In the present difficult situation British policy may hold the key to peace or hostility.”

Syrian reports that Iraq was concentrating troops on the Syrian frontier were officially denied in a message from Bagdad made public by the Iraqi Embassy in Cairo to-day.