African nations attending the World Health Organization (WHO) annual conference which opened here yesterday have unexpectedly rallied behind Israel against a coordinated attempt by the Arab states and their allies to have Israel barred from the conference and eventually expelled from the WHO.
The Arabs got a rude surprise when the African states, led by Nigeria, informed the credentials committee that they opposed a proposal by Bahrain and Sudan to ban Israel because of its alleged violations of international law. The Arabs apparently were not prepared for this stance. The Arab strategy aimed at excluding Israel from all international conferences and forums of United Nations agencies was based on an agreement reached at the conference of non-aligned nations in New Delhi last January.
The Arabs had a first try at implementing that policy at a conference on African refugees held here last month but failed because of American pressure. It was understood that the U.S. planned to walk out of the WHO conference if Israel was excluded.
TIRED OF BEING USED
But it was the Africans who frustrated the Arabs’ plans. The delegations from Nigeria and Kenya, led by the Health Ministers of those countries, told the Israeli delegation, headed by Health Minister Eliezer Shostack, that they were fed up with Arab political manipulations.
They reportedly said they have realized that they were being used by the Arab states which promised financial aid to African countries that never materialized while Israel had helped them in the past in many fields. The African delegates also reportedly spoke of the resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel by their respective countries.
The Arab states are also running into difficulties in their efforts to shift the WHO’s Middle Eastern regional headquarters from Alexandria to another capital because of their objections to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. The Arab delegates have been unable to agree on a new location. Amman, Jordan, was proposed but rejected because it lacks the required administrative facilities. The WHO as a whole is opposed to the transfer because it would have to pay the costs.
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