The report of the United Nations team of investigators who checked the Egyptian seizure of the Israeli merchant vessel Bat Galim in Suez waters has been forwarded by UN truce supervisor Maj. Gen. E. L. M. Burns to the Security Council, a UN spokesman revealed here today.
The spokesman made his statement after announcing that at Gen. Burns’ initiative a scheduled meeting of the Israel-Egyptian Mixed Armistice Commission which was to have discussed the matter was postponed. This was the third time in less than a week that the MAC failed to take up the matter. The spokesman said that as a result of preliminary discussions with the parties, Gen. Burns felt that Egypt would not change her position and that another meeting of the MAC, which had been filibustered at both previous sessions, for a total of 11 hours, would serve no useful purpose.
Meanwhile, the Israeli delegation to the Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission proposed today that it remove from its agenda more than 1,500 complaints which piled up between March and October, during the time Israel had boycotted the Commission’s work. The Israeli proposal was presented despite a toll of 13 Israelis killed and 47 injured by Jordanians in 183 clashes during that period.
Israel’s delegation demanded discussion of only four cases, involving Arab Legion regular troops. The Jordanians objected to the Israeli request, stating that either all complaints should be stricken from the record, or all should be discussed separately.
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