Drop Partition, Arabs Insist, Associated Press, NY Times, Mar. 17, 1948.

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BEIRUT, Lebanon, March 16 (AP)-Secretary General Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha of the Arab League said today that “the Arabs still insist that they will not enter into discussions on the Palestine problem at Lake Success until partition is dropped.”

He spoke to reporters before delegates of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, Trans-Jordan and Lebanon gathered in a secret meeting of the League’s Political Committee to “study the Palestine situation in the light of latest developments.”

There were many indications that the Arab League would again suggest that a federal state was the only acceptable solution of the Palestine problem.

The Syrian representative was unable to attend the meeting because snow blocked the highway between Damascus and Beirut.

Haj Amin el-Husseini, Mufti of Jerusalem, flew here from Cairo.

Azzam Pasha said the Arabs “can’t understand what Russia is trying to do” in supporting the partition of Palestine.

He said he believed that “the Jews in Palestine already are tired of the struggle and war has not started yet.”

“The Arabs have excellent morale and time-they can fight for three or four years, which the Jews are not prepared to do-and numbers,” he added.