Members of the Security Council continued this weekend to conduct private consultations in an effort to reach a formula that will extend the mandate of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) in Sinai after it expires July 24 and to deal with the mounting threats to expel Israel from the UN. Egypt last Tuesday announced that she would not renew the UNEF mandate unless the Security Council took steps to assure Israel’s withdrawal from Arab territories. Forty Islamic nations meeting in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, last Wednesday demanded Israel’s expulsion from the UN and all other international bodies.
Meanwhile, the Senate unanimously adopted a resolution last Friday which said that if Israel was expelled “The Senate will review all present United States commitments to the Third World nations involved in the expulsion and will consider seriously the implication of continued membership in the United Nations under such circumstances.” The resolution was introduced by Senate majority leader Hugh Scott (R, PA).
Daniel P. Moynihan, after presenting his credentials as the new United States Ambassador to the UN Thursday, warned that Congress would act against any expulsion of Israel. Moynihan also stressed that the General Assembly cannot expel a member, only the Security Council has this power. The State Department reiterated this position. The General Assembly is due to open Sept. 16.
11TH HOUR MEETING FOR SECURITY COUNCIL
Diplomatic sources at the UN told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that in view of the complexity of the crisis, the Security Council, which had originally planned to meet tomorrow may not be ready for the meeting until as late as Thursday, the day the UNEF mandate expires.
According to Western diplomats, the difficulty in reaching a formula is due to not knowing exactly what sort of resolution Egypt is seeking. Egyptian Ambassador Abdel Meguid has been quoted as saying that Egypt would like the resolution to call for Israel’s withdrawal from all Arab territories taken during the Six Day War.
U.S. AGAINST CHANGING RESOLUTIONS 242, 338
But State Department spokesman Robert Anderson said Friday that the U.S. is against any change in the previously adopted Security Council resolutions. “It is my very clear understanding that we continue to stand behind Resolutions 242 and 338,” he said. “I do not think that they need revision and I know of no plan to revise such resolutions. This has been our publicly stated position all along….”
In an effort to head off non-renewal of the UNEF mandate, U.S. Ambassador Hermann Eilts left this weekend for Cairo with instructions from Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger on Israel’s latest views for a second-stage interim agreement in the Sinai. Kissinger met with Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz twice last week to receive what the State Department called new proposals from Israel.
DINITZ: ISRAEL IS NOT STALLING
After the second meeting Friday, Dinitz said he believed the United States has “a pretty comprehensive picture of the views, concepts and proposals that Israel has in mind for the next step” in the negotiations with Egypt. Dinitz said he felt “everything Israel has presented is constructive and conducive to progress.”
But he stressed to “newsmen that “Nothing will be solved until everything is solved. So long as there are key elements that are not solved the whole thing is not concluded. I don’t think we can talk of an agreement in principle or things of this nature. But I think we can say we have made progress and we hope that progress will continue so that components of the agreement will be ironed out,” Dinitz said.
Asked about Egypt’s charge that Israel is stalling on the negotiations, Dinitz replied: “My answer to that is look at my calendar. In the last 14 days I had five meetings with the Secretary of State, a meeting between my Prime Minister and the Secretary of State, two trips across the Atlantic, numerous telephone calls and meetings with other State Department officials. I hardly call it stalling.”
Dinitz also again denied that the U.S. is putting pressure on Israel. “I do not believe that we are working in our dialogue with the United States under pressure,” he said. “As I said before, there is no pressure needed in order to get Israel to move toward peace or toward an interim agreement because Israel wants it. And to the extent that Israel has to do things that are contrary to its interest and contrary to its security consideration no pressure would be helpful.”
TURKEY DID NOT VOTE FOR EXPULSION
Meanwhile, Anderson told newsmen Friday that the State Department was informed by Turkey that it did not vote for the expulsion of Israel at the Jidda meeting, but abstained. News reports from the Saudi Arabia city said the resolution was adopted unanimously by the 40 Moslem countries including Turkey and Iran.
“The Turkish government on its own initiative informed us… that the Turks did not participate in the meetings in Jidda that dealt with drafting the resolution or when it was voted on,” Anderson said. He stated that Turkish officials informed the U.S. that the news reports were erroneous and Turkey does not consider itself bound by the resolution. “They (Turkey) were never pressured by us before or at the Jidda Conference,” Anderson stressed. He said he did not know officially whether Iran had voted for the resolution.
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.
