Egypt, Soviet Union Pushing for General Assembly Debate on Mideast, Charter

Delegations to the General Assembly are gearing themselves for a full-scale debate this week on the Middle East. The crunch is coming from the Arab states which are accusing the United States and Israel of torpedoing the Mideast peace talks under Ambassador Gunnar V. Jarring. Egypt’s Foreign Minister Mahmoud Riad, who was reported yesterday to have warned that Egypt would not renew the 90-day cease-fire with Israel which ends midnight Nov. 5, is due to address the General Assembly toward the end of the week. Informed sources here said Mr. Riad is expected to ask the General Assembly to impose sanctions on Israel for its continued occupation of Arab territories. At the same time, Egypt has mounted a concerted drive to pressure the U.S. and Israel to resume the peace talks which were temporarily suspended on Oct. 2 when Dr. Jarring returned to his post in Moscow as Swedish ambassador to the Soviet Union. Dr. Jarring is scheduled to return to UN headquarters this week. Indications are that Egypt wants the peace talks resumed despite charges by the U.S. and Israel that numerous violations of the cease-fire standstill accord continue. Mr. Riad, it was reported from Cairo, stated that Egypt would agree to extend the cease-fire only if Israel “agrees to contact Jarring and declares she is ready to carry out the Security Council resolution (of Nov. 22, 1967).” Israel withdrew from the peace talks last month after charging Egypt with continued violations of the truce accord. The U.S. withdrew last week from the Big Four deputies’ talks until there is a rectification of the missiles emplacement.

Earlier last week. Mr. Riad said the missiles, which Israel has charged were moved into the 32-mile standstill zone after the truce went into effect on Aug. 7, had been there all along and that the Egyptians would not remove any of the missiles or missile sites. The Egyptian Foreign Minister warned that if the U.S. persisted in its accusations of truce violations against Egypt, steps would be taken by Arab oil-producing countries at curbing expansion of oil output. The U.S. would, in this case, be particularly hard hit because American oil operations in the Arab world yields approximately $2 billion a year for the U.S. balance of payments. Informed sources at the UN noted that there is a good possibility that Mr. Riad and Secretary of State William P. Rogers may meet here this week when both diplomats attend the 25th anniversary celebration of the UN. Meanwhile, Donald Bergus, top U.S. diplomat in Cairo, left Washington yesterday for consultations. While diplomats and delegations were girding themselves for the debate on the Middle East, another battle was brewing. This battle, in which the protagonists will be the Soviet Union and the U.S. – and involving the power blocs of both nations – is a drive by the Soviet Union for adoption of a declaration on international security which condemns military occupation and conquest of territory as unlawful under the UN Charter and which would brand as an aggressor any nation which resisted any organization calling itself a “national liberation movement.”

The U.S., which is trying to thwart this drive by the Soviet Union, contends that such a declaration could be used by the Russians as a lever to promote its policies in the Middle East and elsewhere and that adoption of such a text would be beneficial to the Arabs in future negotiations with Israel. According to the U.S. view, such a declaration, which the Soviet Union is seeking to establish as a guide for behavior of nations towards each other, fails to mention the provision contained in the Nov. 22, 1967 resolution on the Middle East that a “lasting peace with agreed and secure borders” must be reached. The debate on the Soviet proposal, which began last week, will continue tomorrow and Tuesday. Western and U.S. delegations have expressed the hope that the Soviet terminology will be rejected in favor of a re-affirmation of the UN Charter. During the debate on Friday, Noureddinne Harbi, ambassador from Algeria to the General Assembly, said that a real peace policy would require, among other elements, the Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories. U.S. Ambassador Charles W. Yost recalled the American recent initiatives in the Middle East and said his delegation would press for proposals to make the UN peace keeping more effective and to encourage resort to peaceful settlement of disputes. He also accused the Soviet Union of seeking to substitute a partisan document for the UN Charter.