The Arab delegations at the General Assembly were understood today, following the major policy speeches of Secretary of State Dulles and Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko, not to favor a full-scale debate on the Middle East issue during the current Assembly session.
Observers here indicated that the basis for Arab opposition was the certainty that such a debate would spotlight the current split in the Arab world between the so-called pro-Western Arab countries and the two lined up with Soviet policy–Syria and Egypt.
The effect of the Dulles and Gromyko speeches was to propel the Middle Eastern situation into first place in the Assembly’s attention. Speaking 24 hours after Mr, Dulles, the Soviet Foreign Minister proposed Friday to the General Assembly that the Soviet Union be given the opportunity to share with the United States, Brita in and France the responsibility for maintaining peace in the Middle East. His five-point formula was viewed by many diplomats here as virtually a carbon copy of the principal resolution adopted by the Bandung conference of Afro-Asian states in April, 1955.
Sir Leslie Knox Munro, president of the General Assembly, speaking on a coast-to-coast broadcast produced by the United Nations radio, said that the stabilization of Israel-Arab relations is the “obvious” and “urgent” need in regard to United Nations action in the Middle East. However, he added that the problem should be handled through “quiet diplomacy” rather than in the glare of publicity.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
