Israel Will Agree to Untso Role in Sinai

Israel will agree to the stationing of an enlarged United Nations Truce Supervisory Organization (UNTSO) force in Sinai in place of the UN Emergency Force (UNEF), it was reported today after a high level ministerial consultation chaired by Deputy Premier Yigael Yadin. The UNTSO proposal was devised between the United States and the Soviet Union in behind-the-scenes consultations at the UN in order to break the impending deadlock over the renewal of UNEF”s mandate, due to expire this week. (LATE BULLETIN, P. 3)

The USSR was not prepared to vote for UNEF’s renewal which would mean implicit endorsement of the Force’s intended role under the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. But Moscow is prepared for a quiet expansion of UNTSO, the UN force that has been in this area since 1948 so that it can fulfil the intended peace-policing role without a special UN resolution to that effect.

Israel, however, is likely to insist that the troops comprising the expanded UNTSO hail only from states that have diplomatic relations with her The U.S. and the Soviet Union have made it clear that they will not introduce officers and men of their own, although there are presently, and always have been, a few American and Soviet officers with UNTSO. At the very least, Israel will insist, as it has in the past, that UNTSO forces policing its side of the lines be from countries with which she has diplomatic relations.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet today vigorously rejected Friday’s Security Council resolution urging Israel to halt “the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.” The Cabinet declared in a statement: “The government reaffirms Israel’s position on Jerusalem and the legality of the settlements. Israel will not cooperate with the Security Council committee on settlements.” (See separate story from the UN, P. 2.)