Foreign Minister Yigal Allon served notice today that Israel will not accept the United Nations as a mediator in the Middle East conflict and regards the U.S. alone as qualified for such a role. He said that UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, who is presently in the Middle East and will visit Israel later this week, would be received with all the honors due his person and position.
“We shall listen and explain, but Israel has no intention of letting him play a specific role in the area.” Allon said, because Waldheim is bound by various UN General Assembly resolutions that undermine Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.
Israel has made it clear that it will participate in a reconvened Geneva conference only on the basis of those resolutions under which the Geneva conference was originally instituted. It will not accept the resolutions adopted at the last session of the General Assembly calling for PLO participation in any Middle East peace talks.
Allon made his remarks before leaving for Brussels where he will sign a supplementary agreement with the European Common Market. He told reporters that he would meet in Brussels with French Foreign Minister Louis de Guiringaud for further discussion of the Abu Daoud affair which Israel does not consider closed. He said Israel’s Ambassador. Mordechai Gazit, who returned to Paris last week after a 23-day recall to underline Israel’s displeasure with France’s release of the Palestinian terrorist, would continue to pursue the matter. Israel is apparently seeking to review the Franco-Israeli extradition agreement with the aim of amending it to prevent future violations.
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