The major objective of Egypt at the United Nations General Assembly will be to isolate Israel and embarrass the United States for her support for Israel. This objective was spelled out by Egypt’s Foreign Minister Mahmoud Riad as he left yesterday from Cairo to attend the Assembly session. At the same time, representatives of Bahrain and Qatar announced that they would support demands for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories. Bahrain and Qatar, two small kingdoms on the Persian Gulf which had been under British protection until early this year, won admission yesterday to the General Assembly after the Assembly unanimously approved the Security Council recommendation to give them membership.
Every delegation, with the exception of Israel, was present at the opening yesterday of the 26th session of the Assembly. The Israeli delegation was absent due to Rosh Hashanah. Riad, in a statement to newsmen at the airport, asserted that “we will do our best to isolate Israel” and try to obtain a Security Council meeting at the foreign minister level to discuss the Middle East crisis. He added that Egypt will endeavor to win more support for its views and added that Egypt has already “succeeded” in placing the US “in an embarrassing position by showing the world her sustained support for the Israeli aggression.” (In Paris, Riad held talks today at the Quai d’Orsay. Usually well informed sources said Riad will try to coordinate the French and Egyptian stands at the Assembly.)
Mubarak al-Khalifah, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bahrain, told the General Assembly as he took his seat, that his country would strengthen ties with “all its sister Arab states,” and added that Bahrain would support the demands of the people of Palestine and the demands of Syria, Egypt and Jordan for what he termed the restoration of their occupied territories. Hassan Kamel. Minister of State and advisor to the government of Qatar, told the Assembly that as an Arab state, Qatar shared the concern of Arabs about the “violation of the rights of the Arab people of Palestine” and the refusal of the “violator” to carry out United Nations decisions.
According to reports reaching here, Riad is scheduled to go to Washington on Sept. 29 for lunch with US Secretary of State William P. Rogers. On Friday, Rogers and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko are scheduled to hold bilateral talks in New York. Israel’s Foreign Minister Abba Eban is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Sept. 30 and is tentatively scheduled to meet with Rogers early next month. Meanwhile, it was learned today that Ambassador Gunnar V. Jarring, the special Mideast peace envoy, has been invited to join Secretary General U Thant, the Big Four (the US. the Soviet Union, Great Britain and France) foreign
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