British Call for Israeli Withdrawal and Arab Renunciation of Aggression

Foreign Secretary George Brown of Great Britain told the United Nations General Assembly today that Israel must withdraw from the territories it has occupied following the June war, “but equally, Israel’s neighbors must recognize Israel’s right to exist and Israel must enjoy security within its frontiers.”

The British spokesman did not offer a formula to achieve these ends but advised the Assembly that “what we must work for in this area is a durable peace, the renunciation of all aggressive designs and an end to policies inconsistent with peace.” He said that Britain had not changed its position on Jerusalem and asserted that the question of Jerusalem was not an issue between Israel and Jordan alone. “It might well be that a wider United Nations presence will have a part to play in all this,” he declared.

Mr. Brown, who said that Britain supported Secretary General U Thant’s proposal to name a special representative in the Middle East, added that a U.N. presence in that area “could be crucial to the first step in restoring calm. A settlement in the Middle East can only come through our United Nations Organization and we, the members, must without delay agree on the framework within which the organization is to operate.”

The British spokesman stressed the need to reopen the Suez Canal, warning that “unless this route is quickly available again, there must inevitably be damaging changes in the pattern of world trade. The economies of the world would permanently reduce their dependence on routes of communication which were blocked or interrupted for a long time.”

Departing from his prepared text, Mr. Brown referred to reports of Israeli plans to establish settlements in the occupied west bank sector and other occupied Arab sections. The implications of these reports, he said, were clear and disturbing.