Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden called on Israel and Jordan today “to refrain from any action which might aggravate the present dangerous situation” along their frontiers while the situation is being considered by the United Nations Security Council.
Mr. Eden stressed to the House of Commons the urgency of obtaining a settlement in Palestine and proposed, “as a first step, some strengthening of the U.N. commission on the spot.”
The British Foreign Secretary told Commons that the problem of Arab-Israel relations, which had been settled only provisionally in the 1949 armistice agreements. “is again causing grave concern, “the immediate reason for which was an attack by Israeli forces on three Jordan villages on October 14.
Sir Robert Boothby, Conservative M.P., pointed out that this was the “culmination of a long series of thefts and raids and murders up and down this frontier over a period of years, not by any means confined to one side.” He urged the Foreign Secretary to use his influence to initiate negotiations for an Israel-Jordan peace treaty.
Mr. Eden, in reply, said that “I quite agree about this being the culmination of a series of incidents and that is the chief reason which motivated us to take this to the Security Council at once because we thought it was the best way for it to be handled by the three powers which assumed this particular responsibility in 1950.”
Asked by Major E.A. Legge-Bourke, Conservative, whether the United Nations could not review the whole situation, including the “unsatisfactory demarcation line,” Mr. Eden expressed agreement that the U.N. must have regard for that question.
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