Egypt sent commandos against Hussein

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32430, 17 October 1970, Page 17

Egypt sent commandos against Hussein

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) t CAIRO, October 16. J Egypt disclosed today 1 that it sent three bat- . taiions of Palestine com- r mandos into J o r d a n < along with arms and am- , munition to back last j month’s revolt against J King Hussein. :

News of the airlift of Palestinians deployed on the Egyptian front came from the Information Minister (Mr Mohammed Heykal), who said Cairo could not send in its own troops to aid the commandos because it would have invited military intervention by foreign Powers. Mr Heykal, in his weekly column in the authoritiative newspaper, “Al Ahram,” said

that President Nasser discouraged the idea of direct Egyptian intervention at the height of the Jordanian crisis, But Egypt had made available all the arms and ammunition the commandos required, he added. The Information Minister, a close friend of President Nasser, who died after a heart attack on September 28, recounted events of the

last 24 hours of the Egyptian leader’s life crowned by the Cairo accord between the guerrillas and the Jordan Government.

He quoted President Nasser as telling the commando leader, Yasser Arafat: “I have explained to you from the beginning that we could not help the (Palestinian) resistance by military action because we would be leaving Israel and fighting Jordan.” The President added that an Egyptian move “would be inviting intervention by foreign quarters which were waiting for that moment.” Mr Heykal said that the

Egyptian leader also sent a message to the Soviet party chief, Mr Leonid Brezhnev at Mr Arafat’s request, asking the Soviet Union to exert the utmost pressure on the United States not to intervene in Jordan. The Information Minister recalled that at one point during the Cairo meeting of Arab leaders to settle the crisis, Mr Arafat arrived fuming with anger, determined for a Jordan show-down “no matter what the consequences will be.”

Mr Heykal said President Nasser told the guerrilla leader: “I have burned my blood during the past days to protect you. Nothing would have been easier to me than to issue a strong statement declaring my support for you (the Palestinians) and grant you a broadcasting station to say what you please against the King (Hussein) —then relax and sit back to watch. “But with my conscience and responsibility I do not accept that.” Mr Heykal said that the last message of the late President to President Nixon was delivered in Cairo to the United States Treasury Secretary (Mr Elliott Richardson), who headed the United States delegation to the funeral.

The message, prepared only five hours before President Nasser died, reassured the United States leader—-who was in Italy—that the U.A.R. was still seeking a Middle East settlement based on the 1967 United Nations Security Council resolution and that Egypt’s stand had not changed. President Nasser also said that “the fuss they (Israel) were making about the missiles had gone too far and was without logic. If Israel intended to withdraw from all the occupied territories, she had nothing to fear from the missiles, even if Egypt had posted them. But if she did not, it was Egypt’s duty—if the missiles had not already been set up —to hasten in getting them on to the posts.” The message was to have been prepared by Mr Heykal and delivered on September 28 to Mr Donald Berguss, in charge of United States interests in Cairo, who was preparing to go to Rome to meet Mr Nixon. But President Nasser died 45 minutes before the message should have been handed over.