Conference files, lot 59 D 95, CF 156
No. 15
Memorandum of Conversation, Prepared in
the Embassy in Jordan1
ST D-3
Subject:
- Jordan
Participants:
- United States
- Mr. John Foster Dulles
- Mr. Joseph C. Green
- Jordan
- H. E. Fawsi Mulqui, Prime Minister
The Prime Minister spent most of this time in making a statement. His statement dealt principally with three subjects: Possible peace with Israel, conditions on the border between Jordan and Israel, and the Yarmuk Project.2
In regard to a possible peace, the Prime Minister dealt at length with the necessity, as he saw it, for beginning with recognition by both sides of all of the United Nations Resolutions in regard to Palestine from 1947 to date. These Resolutions, he said, were the only foundation for peace. His statement on this matter differed, however, from that made to the Ambassador by the Minister of Foreign Affairs on May 13. The Minister of Foreign Affairs had insisted upon “implementation” of the Resolutions. The Prime Minister [Page 42] spoke of the Resolutions as “the basis for negotiations”. It was clear that moderate influences had, within the last twenty-four hours, affected his thinking on this subject.
The Secretary remarked that he did not believe that the United Nations Resolutions of 1947 were a realistic basis for peace at the present time.
The Prime Minister set forth at some length his belief that the settlement of the refugee problem could not be divorced from the political problem of peace with Israel. He insisted that cessions of territory now held by Israel would be necessary in order to make possible a solution of the economic problem presented by the mass of indigent refugees.
The Prime Minister in speaking of the situation on the border, stressed the point that the unwillingness of the Israelis to enter into Local Commanders Agreements and their armed attacks on the Jordanians made in reprisal for infiltration kept the people of Jordan in such a state of agitation as to make difficult the conclusion of any peace with Israel.
The Secretary said that the Israeli Foreign Minister had spoken to him with great concern of the marauding of Jordanian infiltrators in Israel. The Secretary said that he believed that joint measures, such as a joint patrol of the Armistice Lines, would tend to alleviate the conditions of which both sides complained.
The Prime Minister said that at a meeting of the Cabinet yesterday he and all the other members had been astonished and deeply disappointed at a report from the Jordanian Embassy in Washington to the effect that the Department proposed to delay action on the Yarmuk Project until some agreement in regard to riparian rights could be reached with Israel. He denied any Israeli right in Yarmuk waters.
The Secretary said that he was not fully familiar with this matter and suggested that the Prime Minister discuss it with Mr. Stassen.
In his discussion of the Yarmuk Project, the Prime Minister showed his ignorance of Point IV operations in Jordan. He even went so far as to express the idea that Point IV had been very slow in accomplishing anything in the Kingdom.
The American Ambassador endeavored to correct the Prime Minister’s false impression in regard to the work already undertaken and accomplished by Point IV.
The Secretary expressed apprehension lest the tension between the British and the Egyptians result in general Arab hostility to Britain and thus complicate the political situation in this part of the world.
[Page 43]The Prime Minister said that as far as Jordan was concerned hostility to Britain was hardly conceivable as the two countries were allied on a basis of mutual interest and understanding.
- This conversation took place in the office of the Prime Minister.↩
- For documentation on the Yarmuk project, see Documents 947 ff.↩