KING v. GUERRILLAS Hussein Offers Olive Branch Or Sword

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32322, 13 June 1970, Page 11

KING v. GUERRILLAS Hussein Offers Olive Branch Or Sword

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

BEIRUT, June 12.

The fate of Jordan and of the Palestine cause hung today on the answer of the Fedayeen to a stark late-night challenge from King Hussein —the choice of the olive branch or the sword. The King, fighting to keep his throne and hold his deeply-divided country together, last night sacrificed his top military commanders in response to commando demands for their dismissal.

But in return he challenged the guerrillas to end the fighting that has wracked his capital of Amman for three days and to stop what he called “looting and murdering.”

The King, in a statement over Amman Radio, warned that the dismissal of his uncle. Major-General Sharif Nasser bin Jamil, from supreme command of the Armed Forces, and of his cohsin. Major-General Zeid bin Shaker, from command of the Third Armoured Division, was his last concession. If the violence continued, he added, the responsibility' would rest with the com-j mandos.

"Statelet’ Plan

He left no doubt that he; would fight to preserve the unity of his country in face of what he alleged was a guerrilla plan to carve a Palestinian “statelet” out of the west bank of the Jordan R’ver. Rejecting guerrilla charges that his advisers were seeking a separate peace with Israel, the King claimed that the commandos wanted to

solve the Palestine question either by carving out a “statelet” on the west bank of the Jordan, now occupied by Israel, or by creating a

state that would be linked to Israel.

There was no immediate commando reaction to the King’s statement. But a .later Amman Radio announcement that two joint

Jordanian-Palestinian committees had been set up to

investigate the causes of this , I week’s clashes and to coordinate future relations was ; interpreted by observers in Beirut as indicating that the ; moderate guerrilla majority was ready to co-operate in seeking to end bloodshed. An unknown factor is the ! reaction of the far-Left groups, like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. This group, which I has played a leading part in | the Amman fighting and i held about 100 foreigners hostage in two hotels in the city, is believed to be pressing for the overthrow of the King and the establishment of a republic. The British Foreign Office announced today that it had been informed that the hostages had been told they were free. One thing, however, appears certain. Until events I show whether the -Fatah ; leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, newly appointed supreme- ! commander of all guerrilla

groups, can swing the leftwing organisations behind a compromise solution, Amman will remain tense and trigger-

happy. Commandos were reported to be digging trenches round (the Grand Husseini mosque in the heart of Amman overi night as exhausted doctors and nurses tried to save the hundreds of wounded in three

has consistently played a conciliatory role in these crises and has called for an urgent meeting of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq to resolve the commando crisis. The unknown quantity is Syria. Observers said that the weight of pressure from other Arab States was likely to be for a solution favouring the status quo and preservation of the monarchy. Limited Options But this latest crisis had pushed King Hussein closer to the wall that ever before and severely limited the options open to him in any future confrontation with the commandos, the observers said.

In Cairo, President Nasser will continue talks on the conflict today with visiting Lybian leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who has blamed it on betrayal by the extreme Left and treason on the extreme Right. The Egyptian Head of State last night called on both sides to stop the bloodshed among "comrades of arms and brothers of the same destiny.”

Addressing the National Assembly, he said the fighting would greatly endanger the eastern front and shatter efforts to turn it into an

A correspondent of Beirut’s leading daily newspaper “An Nahar” said today in a -private dispatch from Amman that the guerrillas were in control of 80 per cent of the Jordanian capital, United Press International reported. “They are everywhere,” he said. “In all buildings and rooftops. As soon as fire is heard, machine-guns appear from windows and fighting starts “The authorities cannot regain control of the city except by evacuating it home by home. Amman is a frightened city.” \

idays of clashes. An acute 'shortage of blood plasma and |cuts in power and water I supplies added to their difficulties. Two city hospitals alone had received 122 corpses and 584 wounded on Tuesday and -Wednesday. Another 250 wounded people were reported to have been taken to hospitals in Damascus, three hours drive away. Syrian Regulars There were also reports of traffic in the opposite direction—six truckloads of Syrian regulars. Damascus Radio had earlier pledged that Syria would back the commandos jail the way. j This Syrian move might prove of significance. Observers in Beirut feel that in the power struggle now developing in Amman the decisive voice might lie with other Arab States. The Algerian Foreign Minister (Mr Adbelaziz Boutefiika) flew in to Amman last night, on what, in spite of statements in Algiers, was clearly an attempt to bring the two sides together. Egypt and Libya are solidly behind King Hussein land Mr Arafat in promoting la compromise solution. ,1 Iraq, in spite of the radiI cal nature of its Government,

effective line dealing strong blows on Israel. The President described the Jordanian struggle between the Fadayeen and Government troops as a “suicidal tragic scene” which should be ended to spare the Arab nations its grave consequences. He hailed the Palestinian resistance movement- as one of the Arab nation’s most healthy developments, which turned groups of refugees into a fighting people. Colonel Gaddafi, who arrived in Cairo unexpectedly on Wednesday from a tour of eastern front capitals, said that he believed the Jordanian crisis was an inevitable result of “the excess of the extreme Left which reached madness and betrayal and the deviation of the extreme Right which reached treason.” He said both King Hussein and the Arab guerrilla chief, Mr Yasser Arafat, were innocent of trying to plunge Jordan into a civil war. Mr Arafat had earlier appealed to President Nasser and Colonel Gaddafi to do all they could to stop the fighting in Jordan. Replying to a message from the two leaders, Mr Arafat accused “imperialism, Zionism and their agents” of plunging Jordan into the I “furnace of fighting.”