An Israel agreement to re-open a road from Issawia village on Mt. Scopes for use of the Arab villagers ran into a hitch today, necessitating the postponement by Andrew Cordier, United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold’s executive assistant, of plans to return to New York.
Israel had agreed to re-open the road, which is entirely in Israel territory, from sunrise to sunset daily but asked that a special Israel representative be permitted to investigate the truth of an Arab claim about the road. The claim, transmitted through the UN, was that the road was practically the only useable one for Arab villagers. The road, which Israel closed to all but UN investigators after the May 26 Jordan attack which killed UN official George Flint and four Israel police, remained closed pending Jordan’s reaction to the Israel request to inspect the road.
Mr. Cordier, meanwhile, accompanied by UN truce chief Maj. Gen. Carl von Horn, flew to Gaza today to confer with UN Emergency Force commander Lt. Gen. E. L. M. Burns to clarify certain points with respect to the Mt. Scopus situation which he had instituted during his service as UN truce chief. Later today, Mr. Cordier was scheduled to fly to Beirut to lay the entire matter before his superior, UN Secretary General Hammarskjold, who is expected to make a final decision with respect to the now quiet Mt. Scopus situation.
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