Foreign Minister Yigal Allon has recalled Israel’s Ambassador to Sweden, Avner Idan, “for urgent consultations,” it was officially announced today. The recall was clearly a diplomatic expression of Israel’s anger over Sweden’s vote in the Security Council last week to invite the Palestine Liberation Organization to participate in the Council’s deliberations over Israel’s air raids on terrorist bases in Lebanon Dec. 2.
Sweden was the only Western European country to vote with the Arab, Communist bloc and Third World states to extend the unprecedented privilege to the PLO. It provided the crucial ninth vote. Under Security Council rules, the assent of nine of the 15 members is required to invite outside parties to attend its sessions.
ISRAEL FIRM ON BOYCOTTING DEBATE
Allon told yesterday’s Cabinet meeting that there was no change in Israel’s firm resolve to boycott the current Security Council meetings on the Lebanon raid and the Council’s Middle East debate, set to open Jan. 12, to which the PLO was also invited. Allon indicated that there has been American pressure on Israel to reverse its position and attend at least some of the Security Council meetings. But Israel is resisting this pressure, the Foreign Minister said.
Premier Yitzhak Rabin denied at the Cabinet meeting press reports of differences between him self and the Foreign Ministry on this issue, Rabin, who was acting Foreign Minister last week while Allon was abroad, reportedly rejected a proposal that Israel attend those sessions of the Security Council from which the PLO representatives would be absent.
The proposal, which would have permitted Israel to participate in the debate and defend its actions over Lebanon while avoiding proximity with the PLO was said to have been suggested by Israel’s UN Ambassador Chaim Herzog, Rabin said yesterday that the proposal was one of several options presented to him by Foreign Ministry officials while he was acting Foreign Minister.
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.
