British Ask U.N. Security Council to Order New Cease-fire. Troop Withdrawals in Negev

The British delegation at the U.N. Security Council today called on the Council to order an immediate cease-fire in the Negev and implementation, without delay, of the Council’s resolution of November 4 ordering the Egyptians and the belligerents in Israel to withdraw from the Negev to positions held before October 14. A vote on Britain’s resolution was postponed at the suggestion of Canada and the Council will resume discussion of the Negev situation tomorrow.

Harold Beeley, British delegate, also urged the convocation on January 6 of the seven-nation Council sub-committee on imposing sanctions against either party if it did not withdraw from the Negev. He suggested that Norway and Cuba replace Colombia and Belgium, which are no longer members of the Council. He further urged the Governments of the United States, France and Turkey, which were elected members of a Palestine Conciliation Commission by the U.N. General Assembly, to name their representatives to the commission immediately.

The Briton insisted that the prestige of the U.N. was at stake in this issue and that the success of the Conciliation Commission’s work depended on U.N. prestige and authority. He specified three situations in Palestine which he labelled as violations of the Council truce. For the first one he held the Arabs responsible, but for the last two instances he held the Jews at fault. Beeley denied that Britain had ever shipped arms to the Arabs in violation of the truce, but asserted that other members of the Council had supplied the Jews.

The Belgian delegate, who announced that he would vote for the United Kingdom resolution, said that the Jews were responsible for a truce violation according to the reports of acting U.N. Palestine mediator Ralph J. Bunche. French representative Alexandre Parodi asked the Egyptian representative for additional information concerning the Faluja situation, but was given an evasive reply.

Maurice Fischer, Israeli representative in France, who represented his government at the Council session today, declared that the Egyptian representative, Foreign Minister Mahmoud Fawzi, who pressed charges of truce violation against the Jewish state, spoke as if Israel had invaded Egypt and were endangering Egyptian sovereignty. The contrary was the case, Fischer insisted, and Egypt was not complying with the Security Council resolution of November 16 calling on the belligerents to negotiate an armistice.

He reviewed the Negev and armistice situations in relation to the Council’s resolutions and pointed out that the Jews had agreed to withdraw their troops from the Negev, indicated their eagerness to negotiate an armistice and even agreed to release the Egyptian troops at Faluja. However, the Egyptians had changed their minds on the armistice and that in fact the present conflict was caused by this attitude on the part of the Egyptians.