The British delegation at the United Nations, supported by the United States, France and a majority of members of the UN Security Council, but deserted by the Soviet Union, will have to show tomorrow whether it submits to Arab defiance of its resolution on the Arab-Israel issue or intends to seek a formal vote on the draft which aims to further the reduction of tensions on the frontiers between Israel and the Arab countries.
The Arabs succeeded in blocking a vote Friday, and the Security Council adjourned until tomorrow afternoon. Vehement pressure was used by the delegates of Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, and threats were voiced by them that Arab-Israel tension will be worse than ever if the Council “dares” to pass the British resolution calling for ultimate “peaceful settlement” of conflicts on a basis “mutually acceptable” to Israel as well as to the Arab armistice signatories.
The “dare” was voiced here a dozen times during the long debate last week by all of the Arab delegates, led, in this campaign against ultimate peace, by Ahmed Shukairy of Syria. The clause in the British resolution to which the Arabs object would declare that the Security Council is “conscious of the need to create conditions (in the Middle East) in which peaceful settlement on a mutually acceptable basis of the disputes between the parties can be made.”
As far as the Arabs are concerned, they made clear here, there is no possibility of “mutually” agreeing with Israel on basic issues. To Syria, as Mr. Shukairy insisted, Israel does not exist. He said that to him “Palestine is only Southern Syria. Soviet delegate Arkady Sobolev, in backing the Arab delegations in their drive to delete the clause which mentions the possibility of a “mutually acceptable’ Arab-Israel peace move, surprised the British delegation by his attitude, since the soviet leaders Nikita Khruschev and Premier Nikolai Bulganin coined the phrase mutually acceptable peace for the settlement of the Arab-Israel conflict.
The British delegation was expecting today instructions from its government in London as to how to act tomorrow in the light of the rough treatment which the Arabs, backed by the Soviet delegation, are giving the resolution. The Israel delegation has expressed itself in favor of the resolution, which came in consequence of the report submitted to the Security Council by UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold following his return from his “peace mission” in the Middle East where he succeeded in securing a cease-fire pledge both from Israel and the neighboring Arab countries
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