French Premier Guy Mollet told the National Press Club today that he refuses to brand Israel as an aggressor. He said:
“The worst possible formula would be to return purely and simply to the situation as it existed prior to the so-called Israelian aggression. This would even constitute a crime against peace. All of us had the weakness, for eight years, to allow disturbances to develop and, on the other hand, to accept an undeclared war, as the United Nations resolutions were repeatedly flaunted. Our peoples would not allow us to repeat the same tragic error.”
The French Premier asserted that a solution to the Middle East problems must involve “all the factors.” He said a piece-meal solution would be a bad solution. Pointing out that Israel is encircled by hostile Arab neighbors and subjected to repeated Egyptian aggressions, Mr. Mollet declared that Israel “was forced to resort to its elementary right of self-defense.” He added: “I refuse to brand this state of an aggressor.”
M. Mollet said Israel is entitled to have the question of her frontiers settled and her territorial integrity guaranteed. The problem of the Arab refugees must also be settled, he stated. Concerning the Gulf of Akaba, the French Premier said that to guarantee free passage through the Tiran Strait and thereby prevent “the choking of Israel,” is a question of implementing international law.
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