Jordan asked Nixon for help against Syria

YORBA LINDA, Calif., Nov. 28 (UPI) -- King Hussein of Jordan asked the U.S. to attack invading Syrian troops in the 1970s, declassified documents released Wednesday showed.

Documents also detailed U.S. efforts to persuade Saudi Arabia to move away from Fatah, the military wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization, because American officials believed the PLO supported the terrorist group Black September, CNN reported.

The documents were among the roughly 10,000 papers released by the Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, Calif. Library director Timothy Naftali said the documents describe challenges such as how to better engage the Saudis in solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and countering terrorism, as well as how to address the Arab opinion the United States sided with Israel and build up moderate Palestinians to counter extremists.

In 1970, as Syrian forces crossed Jordan's border, Hussein asked "the United States and Great Britain to intervene in the war in Jordan, asking the United States, in fact, to attack Syria," Naftali said. "Syria had invaded Jordan and the Jordanian king, facing what he felt was a military rout, said please help us in any way possible."