Jordan Premier Says Iraq Has Promised to Keep Troops Out

Prime Minister Mudar Badran said Saturday that Iraq has promised to keep its troops out of Jordan unless the Jordanian government appeals for help in the event of an Israeli attack. He also said that Jordan has received assurances that Israeli troops would not cross Jordan’s border. He did not divulge the source of the assurances.

Badran’s assertion of Israeli promises not to invade, published in the Jordan Times, came as Israeli and Jordanian troops were on alert along Jordan’s border with Israel and the occupied West Bank, and under the cloud of Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz’s warning in Geneva last week that Baghdad would attack Israel if war breaks out.

Jordan, with a relatively small army and air force, has declared that it will defend its territory against any invader, and seems particularly worried about the chance of an Israeli incursion. Israeli officials have said they have no intention of sending their army into Jordan, but if Iraqi troops cross the border in eastern Jordan, that pledge would be undermined.

Badran insisted to reporters that any Israeli thrust would endanger the alliance between Western countries and Egypt and Syria. Jordan itself has called for an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, but has made no commitment to the anti-Iraqi Arab forces in Saudi Arabia.