The British Government is ready to offer guarantees of support of any settlement between Israel and the Arab states and Britain stands behind the guarantees of Israel security which she outlined as a signatory to the Tripartite Declaration, Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden declared in the House of Commons last night at the conclusion of a debate on Britain’s adherence to the Turco-Iraq pact.
The Foreign Secretary stressed that in the view of the British Government any Arab-Israel settlement must cover the questions of the future of the Arab refugees, the borders and development of the Jordan River. Sir Anthony’s statement came after considerable criticism from the Labor benches where members of the former Labor Cabinet criticized the British Government’s policy in the Middle East as too pro-Arab.
Sir Anthony declared: “We have got, by every means in our power, to bring about a settlement between Israel and the Arab states. As far as I am concerned, we should be perfectly ready to enter into some new form of guarantee for that settlement.” He underlined this promise by adding: “We would be willing, if need be, to enter into further engagements ourselves to back up the arrangement that was arrived at.”
Britain is still working on the problem of improving relations between the Arabs and Israel, he said. He expressed doubt that the Tripartite Declaration–support of which he reiterated–could be improved upon in any treaty. He recalled his declaration of last December to the effect that Britain was bound to go to Israel’s assistance if Israel were attacked. “That is where we stand,” Sir Anthony insisted, “that is the obligation we have towards Israel.”
Sir Anthony pointed out that he had no illusions as to the difficulty of negotiations for settlement of the Arab-Israel conflict. “The tragic thing,” he said, “is that every time it seemed that the atmosphere was slightly improved and something could be done, an incident occurred and the whole thing flared up again.”
The British Government had ideas of what should be done and would make them known when it could, the Foreign Secretary said. Meanwhile, he went on, the Tripartite Declaration and especially the statement he made in December “is a powerful shield for Israel. They have wise rulers who will not disregard or underrate its importance.”
Speaking specifically of the effect of the Anglo-Turco-Iraqi pact on Israel, he averred that it was in Israel’s interests as well as those of Britain or Iraq. It was “quite unthinkable,” he asserted, that Turkey would be a party to any arrangement “unfriendly or unsatisfactory to Israel,” “We did not join in order to encourage worse relations between Iraq and Israel,” he emphasized.
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