Jordan declares 40 days of mourning for P.M.

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32777, 30 November 1971, Page 15

Jordan declares 40 days of mourning for P.M.

All Government offices, schools and public businesses in Jordan were closed today in mourning for the Prime Minister, Mr Wasfi Tell, who was assassinated in Cairo yesterday.

The 51-year-old Prime Minister, who was considered King Hussein’s right-hand man, will be buried at the Royal Cemetery today on the orders of the King.

The Royal Cabinet last night declared a 40-day mourning and the Council of Ministers ordered a seven-day mourning period throughout Jordan.

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

AMMAN, November 29.

Mr Tell was assassinated by a hail of bullets as he was entering his hotel in Cairo after a session of the joint Arab Defence Council, summoned to plan an Arab strategy against Israel. In Beirut last night, a girl saying that she was a member of a Palestinian “Black September” organisation, told N.Z.P.A.-Reuter that her organisation was responsible for the assassination.

All shops in the Jordanian capital, Amman, were shuttered and closed and public transport disappeared from the streets as the news of the assassination spread. Mr Tell was the second Jordanian Prime Minister to be assassinated in office. The

other was Mr Hazza ’alMajali who died when a bomb exploded in his office. King Hussein’s grandfather the late King Abdullah, was also assassinated, at the alAwsa Mosque in Jerusalem in 1951.

fident the culprits would be duly punished. In his reply, King Hussein urged President Sadat to do his utmost to ensure that the assassins were adequately punished. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia and President Jaafar al Nimeiry of the Sudan, also sent a cable to King Hussein with their profound condolences.

King Hussein, showing an outward calm, in a brief radio broadcast called on the Jordanians to adhere to national unity. “There is only one reply to all these crimes. I ask everyone of you for more faith in national unity, and more adherence to it . . .”, the King said. President Anwar. Sadat of Egypt, in a cable to King Hussein, said: “Please accept my sorrow and the sorrow of the Egyptian people for ihe crime committed on Egyptian soil against your country’s Prime Minister.”

Mr Tell’s assassination came shortly after the conclusion of another round of abortive talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, between the Jordanian Government and the Palestine guerrilla movement for reconciliation between them. Observers said that Mr Tell’s assassination might lead to a tougher line by the Jordan Government against the Palestinian guerrillas, i This would probably be revealed when King Hussein names his new Prime Minister. There was, however, no immediate indication as to who this is likely to be.

He also expressed condolences to the Jordanian Government and Mr Tell’s family, and said that he was con-