The United States indicated today that it would exercise its veto power in the Security Council if that body ends its current Middle East debate with the adoption of resolutions that would attempt to change Resolutions 242 and 338.
Addressing the Council late this afternoon. U.S. Ambassador Daniel P. Moynihan said the U.S. believed it would be a set-back for the chances of a settlement if the Council adopted resolutions “which would have the effect of leaving no commonly accepted basis for further negotiations.” He warned that any imposed changes unacceptable to any of the parties “will not work.”
Moynihan said that “Our actions both in the Council and afterwards will be guided by our best judgement of what is necessary” to avoid impeding chances for peace. The U.S. had stated previously that it would block any measures it saw as endangering progress toward a peace settlement.
Moynihan stressed that the two Security Council resolutions are the framework for any progress toward ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. “We are aware,” he said, “that there can be no durable solution unless we make every effort to promote a solution of the key issues of a just and lasting peace in that area on the basis of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 taking into account the legitimate interests of all the people of the area including the Palestinian people and respect for the rights to independent existence of all states in the area.”
REBUFF TO ARABS SEEN
Moynihan’s use of the words “legitimate interests” as applied to the Palestinians was seen as a rebuff to the Arabs who are seeking Security Council recognition of the “rights” of the Palestinian people. The word “rights” signifies political rights which in turn implies the right to statehood. “Legitimate interests” is a much broader term and does not have the same political connotation, observers here noted. Moynihan, however, upheld “the rights to independent existence of all states in the area” which includes Israel.
The U.S. envoy said that the two Security Council resolutions “have been the foundation for the progress that has been made and they continue to provide hope for the future.” He said the U.S. is dedicated to achieve progress in the Middle East this year.
Moynihan declared that “We cannot escape the reality of the situation that when all parties have agreed to a framework, all of them must agree to changes in that framework.” He emphasized that all the problems of the Middle East should be dealt with by the negotiating process and that any “changes that may be required in our approach must be worked out in the Geneva process.”
He said that matters of procedures and the questions of additional participants to the Mideast talks should be dealt with at Geneva or at a preparatory conference. This U.S. position is shared by Israel whose Ambassador to the UN, Chaim Herzog, said at a press conference last week that Israel was prepared to enter the Geneva conference without pre-conditions and to discuss there the question of additional participants. The Arabs on the other hand, are pressing for Security Council action that would admit the PLO in advance to participation in the Geneva talks.
Moynihan said that “having succeeded in establishing an agreed framework of procedures and principles for a settlement and in creating conditions for the establishment of the Geneva conference as a forum in which the implementation of these principles can be negotiated, the Council should not now seek to pre-judge the work of that conference.”
Concluding, Moynihan said. “We have learned and profited from the deliberations of this Council and t
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