The Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations meeting here today adopted a resolution warning the United Nations that unless it acts to guarantee freedom of navigation in the Gulf of Akaba and the Suez Canal and to prevent the Gaza Strip from being used as a base for attacks on Israel, it will “only be putting the clock back to where the October fighting began. “The council proposed:
1. Congress should accept the Eisenhower Doctrine with the aforementioned additions.
2. The United States should strive to replace the present Arab-Israeli Armistice with a permanent treaty of peace and a Mutual Non-Aggression Pact between Israel and her Arab neighbors.
3. All Egyptian territory evacuated by Britain, France and Israel should be held in trust by the UN until such time as a peace treaty is concluded between Israel and Egypt and effective measures have been taken to assure continuous operation and freedom of navigation in the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Akaba.
4. Towards improving the relations between the people of the Middle East. Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia–as the nations bordering on the Gulf of Akaba–should be strongly urged to sign a treaty safeguarding freedom of navigation in this waterway for all ships, without regard to their national registry.
5. Towards furthering economic development and social progress in the Middle East, the UN Economic and Social Council and its other appropriate agencies should prepare plans and projects for industrial development and improved living standards.
6. Immediate steps should be taken by a broad consortium of free nations, or by the International Bank, to survey the possibilities and recommend the steps to be taken for providing alternative routes to the Suez Canal and additional means of transport and communication, such as a fleet of super tankers, new pipeline construction via Turkey, Iraq and Israel, in order to prevent Nasser or anyone else from having a dangerous monopoly on such vital channels of international commerce and prosperity.
7. Until the conclusion of an Israel-Egypt peace treaty, our government should seek to have the UN demilitarize the Sinai area.
8. Towards improving the economic conditions of and providing employment for the residents and refugees of the Gaza Strip and towards turning this area into a model of harmonious relations between the peoples of the Middle East, Israel should, under the direction of an International Authority, be permitted to initiate vital agricultural and industrial projects.
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