Congress to Reassess U.S. Relations with the UN

A Congress angered by the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of a resolution equating Zionism with racism moved today to reassess the United States relations with the United Nations.

Sen. Hugh Scott (R.Pa), the Senate Minority Leader, introduced a resolution with 30 co, sponsors calling on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House International Relations Committee to begin hearings immediately on further U.S. participation in the General Assembly. The resolution was unanimously accepted.

In the House, Majority Leader Thomas O Neill (D.Mass.) introduced a resolution calling for the House international Relations Committee to hold hearings on future American involvement in the UN as a whole. “I despair for the future of the UN and I wonder how useful it can continue to be,” he said.

Rep. John Rhodes, the House Minority Leader in associating himself with O’Neill, noted he was co-author of the House resolution supported by 436 representatives which condemned the anti-Zionist resolution adopted by the General Assembly’s Third Committee and urged the Assembly to reject it. The Senate adopted a similar resolution.

HOUSE ADOPTS RESOLUTION

However, Rep. Robert Kastermeir (D.Wisc.) offered a procedural objection to O’Neill to have his resolution adopted by unanimous consent. However, the House voted 384-0 to adopt the O’Neill-Rhodes resolution.

The Scott resolution urged “energetic effort by all concerned with adherence to the United Nations” to obtain “reconsideration” of the anti-Zionist resolution “with a view to removing the subject of Zionism which is a national but in no way racial philosophy, from the context of any program or discussion focussing on racism or racial discrimination.”

The resolution also says that “the Congress strongly opposed any form of participation by the U.S. government in the Decade of Action (by the UN) to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination so long as that decade and its program remain distorted and compromised” by the anti-Zionist resolution.

THORN WARNS OF EVIL CONSEQUENCES

Meanwhile, at the UN, Gaston Thorn, President of the General Assembly, warned that the Assembly’s action last night had “evil consequences” that would be perceived only too soon. He castigated the 32 nations which abstained in the vote on the anti-Zionist resolution, asking. “How could they have abstained from accepting their responsibilities?”

Although he made it clear that he spoke as Premier of Luxembourg, Thorn’s remarks were viewed as unprecedented criticism by the head of the General Assembly of a decision taken by that body. “I fear that the evil consequences of this vote will appear only too soon for all, including those who were its instigators. I can only hope that this realization will allow a sufficiently large number of delegations to put things right,” Thorn said.