Turkey Accepts Offer Of Mediation

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28415, 23 October 1957, Page 13

Turkey Accepts Offer

Of Mediation

(Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON. October 21. Turkey has officially accepted King Saud’s offer to mediate between her and Syria in the Middle East crisis. The Lebanese Foreign Minister, Mr Jamil Makkawi. said to-night that he had been informed of this by the Turkish Ambassador and had telephoned the information to the Syrian acting Foreign Minister Mr Khalil Kallas. The agency said the announcement added: “The Saudi Government, in announcing this good news to Arabs and Moslems in the East and West, hopes that the good offices and faithful efforts of King Saud to bring viewpoints closer will succeed for the sake of peace and tranquillity in this part of the world.” It was noted that the Syrian Foreign Ministry denial that she has accepted the offer was directed at a Damascus newspaper report, not at the broadcast from King Saud’s own radio station. The denial said the newspaper report was ' rumour and there Would be no Svrian delegation to Riyadh, King Saud’s capital. Syria was determined to follow through her United Nations complaint concerning Turkish troop concentrations and their threat to peace. Turkey is willing in principle to agree to a United Nations Investigating Commission, depending on its terms and scope, it was reported from Istanbul today. In Teheran, the Syrian Charge h’Affaires today denied an alleged statement attributed to the Syrian Foreign Minister. Mr Salah Bitar, that the United States was planning a coup in Syria similar to that in Persia in 1953. He made the denial when he called on the Persian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Moshfegh Kazemi. Observers in Istanbul thought that Turkey would want any United Nations commission not to limit itself to the border with Syria but to probe also the Turkish-Russian border region, and not to confine itself to Turkterritory. The Jordan Foreisn Minister, Mr Samir Rifai, discussed the 81 tuation with the United States and Turkish Ambassadors in Amman today. » The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr

David Ben Gurion, in his parliament called on the United States and Russia to reach agreement to reduce Middle East tension. ‘‘War Prospects Faded” The Indian Prime Minister, Mr Nehru, told a press conference in New Delhi that “the immediate situation has eased down considerably. The prospects and possibilities of a war have rather faded.” The Syrian Prime Minister, Mr Sabri el Assali, said in Damascus last night that the Soviet Union would ‘‘undoubtedly intervene militarily against the aggressors’ if Syria were attacked, according to a report in Beirut today. A Syrian Deputy, Mr Ihsan Jabiri, told reporters who asked about King Saud of Saudi Arabia’s reported offer of mediation: ‘‘There is no dispute between Syria and Turkey. ‘‘All we are doing is adopting a neutral policy. The Turks should leave us alone and not be worried that in future we should constitute a threat. We are not enemies of Turkey,” the Arab News Agency reported. ‘‘Pravda,” the Soviet Communist Party newspaper, reiterated the argument contained in last week’s Soviet statement that the United States had hatched a plot with Turkey to attack Syria. Turkish troop concentrations on the Syrian frontier and the reinforced United States 6th Fleet standing close to the shores of Syria had created an extremely dangerous situation in the Middle East, “Pravda” said, and called for ‘‘the thwarting of the aggressor’s plans.” Syria’s Prime Minister, Mr Sabri el Assali, said in Damascus today that ‘‘every town and every village in Syria will be another Port Said” if Syria was attacked, the Cairo Radio reported in an Arabic broadcast last night. “Arab nationalism will possess something which will make it the subject of respect for all the peoples of the world after the battle it is now waging against imperialist snares.” he said. The Prime Minister denied allegations that Syria would attack Turkey or that Syria constituted a danger to Turkey and that the Soviet Union would use the attack on Turkey to attain its aspirations, Cairo Radio reported.