The U.N. Secretariat today received a formal request from the Egyptian Government asking that the agenda of the special U.N. General Assembly on Palestine be extended to include an additional item demanding the termination of the Palestine Mandate and the proclamation of Palestine as an independent state.
Officials of the United Nations told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that all member nations of the U.N. will be notified by cable of the request of the Egyptian Government which will become a part of the agenda only if it is approved by two-thirds of the fifty-five member governments. In the meantime, the requested item will be put on the provisional agenda.
The Egyptian move is aimed at securing a full-dress debate on the Palestine issue. The United States and Britain are known to oppose such action. The communication of the Egyptian Government was delivered to U.N. Secretary-General Trygve Lie by the Egyptian Ambassador to the United States, who emphasized that the request was made “in conformity of Article 18 of the provisional rules of procedure of the General Assembly.”
Article 18 of the General Assembly’s provisional rules of procedure reads: “Any member of the United Nations may, at least four days before the date fixed for the opening of a special session, request the inclusion of additional items in the agenda. Such items shall be placed on a supplementary list, which shall be communicated to members of the United Nations as seen as possible.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
