Diplomatic Semantics at the UN

A spokesman for United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim denied today that Waldheim had made a “call” for a Palestinian state at a dinner given by the Arab League last Friday night. But he said the Secretary General had spoken in “favor of Palestinian self-determination including statehood.”

This exercise in diplomatic semantics came at the daily press briefing here as the Israel Mission to the UN was distributing a statement saying Waldheim had “exceeded the limits of his office” by his statement and had “put himself squarely on the side of one of the parties in the Arab-Israel conflict.”

When the UN spokesman was first asked about Waldheim’s statement at the Arab League dinner, he said “no such call” for a Palestinian state had been made. He said Waldheim had spoken of the “right of Palestinians to self-determination” and had said the Palestine Liberation Organization “must participate in negotiations” for a Middle East peace. He said this was nothing more than Waldheim had said on previous public occasions.

But when the spokesman was pressed further, he stated that Waldheim said he favored “Palestinian self-determination including a statehood.” He added that one of the ways self-determination can express itself is through statehood. But he said he was only objecting to the use of the word “call” in connection with Waldheim’s remarks.

The spokesman also admitted that Waldheim “expressed” the view that a solution to the Mideast problem required Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories. He said the Secretary General was expressing the statements adopted by various UN resolutions.

VOTE ON RESOLUTION DUE BY WEDNESDAY

Meanwhile, the General Assembly is expected to vote by Wednesday on a resolution sponsored by 29 countries calling for Israel to “withdraw completely and unconditionally” from all territory occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War, “including Jerusalem” and to begin the withdrawal before Nov. 15.

The resolution, which was introduced today by Ambassador Falilou Kane of Senegal, chairman at the Committee on the inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, was first made public officially late Friday after the fourth day of the emergency special session of the Assembly. At today’s session, the fifth day, a haste of Third World countries were expected to complete the long list of speakers for the emergency session before discussion on the resolution begins tomorrow.

The proposed resolution also reaffirms the PLO as a participant “on an equal footing in all efforts, deliberations and conferences on the question of Palestine and the situation in the Middle East within” the UN framework. It also “expresses its opposition to all policies and plans aimed at the resettlement of the Palestinians outside their homeland.”

A companion resolution has also been introduced by Cuba, Iraq, Qatar, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Yugoslavia and Zambia which calls on the President of the General Assembly to appoint additional members to the Palestinian committee by Aug. 31 end calls on the committee to “study thoroughly the reasons for the refusal of Israel to comply with the relevant United Nations resolutions” on withdrawal.

In introducing the resolution today, Kane noted it was a “compromise.” Most observers see the resolution as watered down from one that would have sought the creation of a UN force to oversee Israel’s withdrawal. Kane appeared today to deny reports that such a force had been contemplated. Israel has already asserted that it will ignore any resolution.