The text of a draft armistice prepared by U.N. mediator Dr. Ralph Bunche and his staff was presented at Rhodes today to the Israeli and Egyptian delegations with a view to receiving their observations; it was reported here from U.N. headquarters in Rhodes.
Dr. Bunche was busy discussing the draft this afternoon with the heads of the two delegations whom he saw alternatively. Informal talks at which suggestions and counter-suggestions will be offered are to take place tomorrow, after which there will be a plenary meeting on Thursday. The holding of such a meeting is taken to indicate that the signing of an armistice between Israel and Egypt is only a matter of several more days.
The president of the Security Council was informed last night by Dr. Bunche that he expects the armistice negotiations between Egypt and Israel to be concluded within a few days. Dr. Bunche also reported that he has taken steps to initiate armistice negotiations between Israel and the other Arab states.
Drawing the attention of the Security Council to the fact that the U.N. Palestine Conciliation Commission held its first meeting yesterday in Geneva, Dr. Bunche urged that the office of the mediator should be terminated in accordance with the resolution of the Security Council which provides that the functions now assigned to the mediator and to the Consular Truce Commission on Palestine be transferred to the Conciliation Commission.
“It is obviously desirable that the functions and responsibility of the United Nations in its efforts to achieve a peaceful adjustment of the Palestine situation should be centralized in one organ to the greatest extent possible,” Dr. Bunche said in his cable from Rhodes. “There are obvious disadvantages from a multiplicity of United Nations agencies or representatives working simultaneously on various aspects of the problem.”
Information received here from the U.N. headquarters in Rhodes indicated that Dr. Bunche was optimistic about the possibilities for an agreement between Israel and Egypt on all questions under discussion. A usually reliable source here said today that an armistice between Israel and Lebanon would be announced within the next few days.
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