United Nations delegations friendly to Israel are of the opinion that the only way to find out whether progress has been made toward securing freedom of passage for all nations through the Suez Canal would be for Israel to test the issue by sending a ship, or at least Israel-bound cargo through the Canal.
On instructions from Jerusalem, the Israel delegation did not participate last Friday in the Security Council debate on Egypt’s declaration on operation of the Suez Canal. The delegation members noted a new formulation of United States assumptions and that the United States informed the Israeli delegation and the Embassy in Washington ahead of time that Henry Cabot Lodge, chief U.S. delegate, would voice at the Security Council the assumption “that there will in fact be, as there should be, free and non-discriminatory use of the canal at all times by ships of all nations. “He did not mention Israel specifically, however, as did Guillaume Georges-Picot of France and Dr. E. Ronald Walker of Australia.
The French delegate denounced the Egyptian declaration, point by point, and twice mentioned Egypt’s illegal blockade of Israel shipping. He drew the attention of the Security Council to the fact that Egypt did not even bind itself to take the issue of Israeli shipping to the International Court of Justice, or to agree to abide by any court decision. He said all that Egypt had to do was to bind itself to accept the court’s jurisdiction, despite the fact that Egypt is a member of this court.
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