BEIRUT: A new Middle East war cannot be discounted, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat said in a television interview broadcast here last night [Oct 8]. Asked whether he believed that Israel might launch a new war, he said: “Surely, this cannot be discounted.” In the interview, filmed … on the first anniversary of the October Arab-Israeli war, President Sadat said the basic issue at the Arab Summit in Rabat later this month would be “rivalry between Jordan and the Palestinian resistance (movement)”. Before the Geneva Middle East Peace talks resumed, there had to be a united Arab front … “or else we shall return to a state of division, on which Israel counted on [in] the past”.

[Meanwhile, as reported from Occupied Jerusalem,] some 8,000 Israelis in a carefully planned operation today [Oct 9] tried to establish settlements in occupied West Jordanian territory. Today’s campaign involved almost 8,000 members of religious parties and traditionalist movements opposed to surrender of West Jordan territory. … Israeli … authorities posted units on the main roads to West Jordan, but several groups of potential settlers “evaded” the military and Police by taking tracks over the hills.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2024