Arab and Jewish representatives agreed at today’s session of the U.N. Security Council on the earliest possible withdrawal of the United Nations truce supervisory machinery from Palestine.
The Israeli, Egyptian and Syrian delegations expressed this sentiment after being invited to comment on formal Soviet proposals calling for the immediate withdrawal of all United Nations personnel from Palestine including the Conciliation Commission itself. The Russian proposals were put forth in the form of amendments to a joint Canadian-French draft resolution drawn up in consultation with Palestine mediator Dr. Ralph Bunche during the week-end.
Under this resolution, the Arab-Israeli armistice agreements supersede the truce, but leave the U.N. Security Council in full charge of the cease-fire through the United Nations chief of truce staff. The acting mediator is relieved of his responsibility and the U.N. Conciliation Commission deprived of any responsibility for implementing the armistice agreements.
U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL DELAYS VOTE UNTIL THURSDAY
The effects of the Canadian-French resolution, if adopted, would be to lift the arms embargo on the Middle East and, at the same time, remove all military responsibility from the Conciliation Commission. The resolution makes no reference to the freeing of Mt. Scopus or the lifting of the Egyptian blockade, two points raised by Israeli representative Aubrey Eban.
The question of the armaments race raised by Eban in previous meetings appeared to vanish as an issue when the two Soviet delegates at the Council failed to make mention of the question. Soviet delegate Semyon Tsarapkin and the Ukrainian delegate, Dmitri Manuilsky, were chiefly concerned with allowing the parties to work out their problems in direct negotiations without “pressure” from the outside. “The parties proved they are mature enough to reach their own agreements,” Tsarapkin said. He added that “there is no need for any commission or any observers.”
Dr. Bunche generally held that complete elimination of U.N. personnel would injure the structure of armistice commissions and expose to danger a number of demilitarized zones, such as Mt. Scopus which is entirely under U.N. control. Mr. Eban suggested that the Council might eliminate all truce supervisory personnel at once, excepting the minimum numbers called for by armistice agreements.
Norway’s representative again expressed the concern of his government over the unsolved assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte. At the request of Mr. Tearapkin the Council decided not to vote today on the resolution. It will resume discussion on Thursday.
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