ARAB-ISRAELI SITUATION REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00826A002100010025-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 17, 2006
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: June 13, 1967
• Content Type: IM

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Directorate of Intelligence
13 June 1967
Arab-Israeli Situation Report
s o : 0 a.m. EDT'
1. Cairo's semi-official Al-Ahram says today that
Boumedienne's current trip to Moscow was undertaken with
Nasir's blessing. According to Al-Ahram, Boumedienne
is representing a number of Arab spa -es during his talks
with' the Soviets.
2. there 25X1
is growing uneasiness and dissatisfaction among the
educated middle-class Libyans with the silence and in-
action of the Libyan Government and the virtual break-
down of communications between the government and the
people. This situation is an obvious 25X1
opening for a military takeover, especially since the
military is in effective control of the country under
emergency regulations.
34 Yugoslavia is preparing to break diplomatic
relations with Israel, according to the acting Yugoslav
consul general in New York. This would be in line with
the diplomatic and propaganda support given Nasir by
Tito throughout the Middle East crisis.
4. As of 12 June, the Jordanian Government esti-
mated that the number of refugees who have crossed the
Jordan from the West Bank is from 35,000 to 50,000.
Also as many as 50,000 have left East Bank refugee
camps and gone to Amman. It is not known if any refugees
NAVY review(s) completed.
State Dept. review completed
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6. The Getty pipelines in Kuwait have been
repaired
and production has been resumed.
7. The situation in Aden is just about normal --
that is, 18 incidents in the last 24 hour period. Anti-
British demonstrations have taken place recently in the
states of the Federation, including an armed attack on
a British Residency. In one state rioters stormed the
political resident's house and forced him to flee to
his roof. The crowd carried a rope with which they
threatened to hang the resident to his own flagpole.
British troops in other places discouraged demonstrat-
ions.
8. The Nasir regime appears to have rapped the
knuckles of the editors of Cairo's Al-Akhbar for print-
ing yesterday's critical commentary on the weak-kneed
performance of the USSR. Today the paper prints an
article lauding the principled stand of the USSR and the
Communist countries, ending with the statement that it
did not deny the "USSR's sincere cooperation in the phases
of our struggle." Today's Pravda attacks the "reaction-
aries" in Egypt who are "slan eying" the USSR, an in-
direct: but obvious rebuttal to Al-Akhbar's earlier
edition.
9. UPI says today that, according to informed
sources, the government of Premier Sulayman has offered
Nasir its resignation "to give him a free hand in Egypt's
postwar reorganization."
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Directorate of Intelligence
13 June 1967
Supplement to
Arab-Israeli Situation Report
(As of a.m. EDT)
1. Despite their frustration over the outcome of
the war and their initial resentment toward Moscow's
limited role therein, some Arab officials apparently see
a need for drawing even closer to the Soviets.
continue working hard to erase their tarnished image by
providing more material aid while pilloring the West,
the traditional scapegoat in the Arab world. There are
some tentative indications in the Egyptian press that
the process of forgiving the USSR is already underway.
cou prove transitory, owever, as the Communist states
is lee ling o estrangement
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Directorate of Intelligence
13 June 1967
Arab-Israeli Situation Report
As of 4:30 p.
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4. Israel has begun to include the newly-occupied
territories in its regular national weather forecasts,
and Arabic place-names are apparently being changed.
Sharm ash-Shaykh, for example, is now being referred to
as "Solomon's Bay". The embassy in Tel Aviv reports a
local rumor to the effect that Israel plans to exploit
Sinai oil wells, since Sinai production is just equal
to Israel's consumption. The Israeli petroleum commission-
er has confirmed that the oil areas are under Israeli con-
trol, that guards have been posted, and that the question
is under consideration, although he added that Israel
currently has no facilities, either to operate the wells
or to transport the crude.
5. According to Israeli officials, Israeli pene-
tration into Syrian territory is not very deep, em-
bracing an average area of 12 to 13 miles in depth,
which is just enough to keep Syrian artillery out of
range of Israeli border settlements. The ceasefire
line runs north from the junction of the Israeli/Leban-
ese/Syrian border, and the Israelis have no intention
of moving further into Syria. The Israelis also deny
that there are Soviet POW's in Israeli hands
6. Press reports out of Damascus indicate that the
Arab League Central Boycott Office is considering sweep-
ing measures to ban British and American goods and firms
from Arab countries and withhold oil from any country
helping Israel. In Morocco, however, the Trade Union
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Federation today lifted its boycott of British and Amer-
ican shipping in Casablanca harbor launched last week.
In Beirut, dockworkers on 12 June refused to unload a
small cargo of American wheat and rice, even though it
was not carried on an American ship. A small detachment
of the Lebanese army was sent to the dock area, where
it compelled the workers to unload the cargo.
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10. Reports of Suez Canal damage, heretofore
limited to vague references to sunken tugs and barges,
are becoming more specific -- and serious.
IThe US Navy re-
ports that it WI II TaXe ten ays to clear sunken ships
at Port Said.
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12. Tunisian President Bourguiba has informed the
American ambassador that he does not believe the charges
of direct American military intervention on behalf of
Israel. Nevertheless, the Ambassador reports, there is
a profound conviction on all sides that the US, and to
a lesser extent the UK, have provided Israel with the
sinews of aggression, and that Israel would have re-
ceived US armed assistance if the battle had gone the
other way. Tunisia intends, however, to adhere to its
moderate and realistic policies.
14. Yugoslavia today joined the USSR, Czechoslovakia,
Bulgaria, Poland, and Hungary in breaking relations with
Israel.
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17, Pravda has accused China and Albania of spread-
ing "anti-So~v et lies" about Russia's role in the Middle
Eastern war. Pravda's Cairo correspondent said that
Chinese diplomas^ n the UAR, along with Peking and
Tirana radios, were involved in these distortions.
18. From the beginning of the conflict, Peking
has charged that the war was a result of "US-Soviet
collusion," and has claimed that the USSR's failure
to act revealed its lack of revolutionary ardor. The
Pravda article indicates that these charges have be-
come sufficiently bothersome that an answer was in
order. China has been attempting to capitalize on
Arab criticism of the USSR's failure to act during the
hostilities but Moscow is aware that China does not have
the assets to make any substantial gains because of the
present tarnishing of the Soviet image.
19. In response to a request of the Soviet Union,
the Security Council met again this afternoon. Prior
to the meeting the Soviet Foreign Ministry and the
Mission to the UN has already begun to sound out a
number of foreign emissaries concerning their willing-
ness to support a Soviet proposal to call a General
Assembly session to discuss the Arab-Israeli problem.
Soviet officials are
indicating that the primary purpose of such a session
would be to treat the subject of "Israeli aggression",
and the problem of withdrawal from occupied territory
to armistice lines,
the Soviet efforts in the UN are a
part of Moscows vigorous diplomatic effort not only
to reverse Israel's military gains, but to enhance
Soviet prestige and influence among the Arab states.
20. How quickly and how effectively Moscow can
work through the Assembly to achieve what it has fail-
ed to achieve in the Council is difficult to say --
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there are, to begin with, some complicated procedural
issues.
Background to the Soviet UN Tactics
21, Persuant to the 1950 Uniting for Peace re-
solution, an emergency special session of the General
Assembly may be calT.ed at the request of a majority
(9) of the Security Council, or, of a majority of the
UN members. The session shall be convened within
twenty-four hours of the Secretary-General's receipt
of the request for the session, and the UN members must
be given twelve hours notice of the opening of the
session.
22. The Uniting for Peace resolution is applicable
when the Security Council has been prevented from tak-
ing action on a threat to the peace "because of a lack
of unanimity among the permanent members." It is
unclear whether it could be construed to apply to the
present situation in which the USSR's resolution
calling for condemnation of Israel and withdrawal of
its forces is unlikely to command majority support in
the Council.
23. The USSR could call a special session of the
Assembly, as distinct from an emergency special session,
but the procedure is more time-consuming. Either a
majority of the Security Council or of the UN membership
may request a special session, which will beheld within
fifteen days of the Secretary-General's receipt of the
request. However, the members must be given fourteen
days notice if the special session is requested by the
Security Council and ten days notice if the request is
from a majority of the UN membership.'
24, Under Articles 12 of the Charter, the Assembly
cannot make recommendations regarding any dispute or
situation with which the Security Council is seized.
Moreover, even if operating under the Uniting for
Peace resolution, any action which the Assembly might
take would require the vote of two-thirds of the member-
ship.
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