Forty Islamic nations, including America’s NATO partner Turkey, and Iran, demanded the expulsion of Israel from the United Nations and all other international organizations in a resolution adopted without dissent at a four-day-conference of Islamic foreign ministers in Jidda, Saudi Arabia which concluded today.
According to reports reaching here, the resolution sponsored by the Palestine Liberation Organization, urged all member nations of the UN “to sever their political, cultural and diplomatic relations with Israel.” The resolution said “The conference also condemns the states that extend military, economic and human support to Israel” and declared that all Zionist congresses were a direct threat to world peace.
The resolution was adopted in face of criticism by Secretary of State Henry A, Kissinger earlier this week that Third World nations were undermining the UN by using it as a weapon for political warfare, Kissinger implied that the expulsion of Israel from the UN could lead to a withdrawal of U.S. support from the world organization.
Kissinger made his remarks in the course of a major foreign policy address in Minneapolis yesterday. At a press conference there last night, when asked about the resolution by the Moslem foreign ministers, he told newsmen, “We have not said exactly what we shall do if the Charter of the UN is violated but we believe that expulsion of a member would be an not which would affect American participation in the actions of that body.” He added that the Ford Administration “undoubtedly would take some actions, but what these actions would be I am not in a position to say.”
The Jidda resolution recognized the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the rights of the Palestinian people to establish an “independent national authority” in the territories now occupied by Israel and condemned as illegal, Israel’s occupation of that territory. A PLO spokesman reportedly expressed hope that the campaign to expel Israel from the UN would be supported at the forthcoming meetings of African leaders in Uganda and of non-aligned nations in Peru.
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.
