Israel complained to the United Nations Security Council today that Syria committed “grave acts of aggression” against Israeli nationals and territory yesterday and that those acts violated the 1949 armistice agreement between Syria and Israel.
The complaint was lodged by Ambassador Michael S. Comay, Israel’s permanent representative at the United Nations, in a letter to the current president of the Security Council, Apollo K. Kironde, of Uganda. Mr. Comay’s letter did not ask for a Security Council meeting on the Israeli complaint.
At the same time that the Comay letter was delivered to Mr. Kironde, a statement was issued here in the name of Lt. Gen. Odd Bull, Chief of Staff of the U.N. Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine. Gen. Bull noted in his statement that the incidents of yesterday on and around Lake Tiberias, in which Syrian gunpoints fired at Israeli ships on the Lake, then sent jet fighters over the lake, drawing a reprisal air action from Israel, constituted violations by both Syria and Israel.
The members of the Security Council were studying today not only Mr. Comay’s letter but also the preliminary report by Gen. Bull. Gen. Bull reported that he had sent to the Israel Director of Armistice Affairs a letter in which he told him that “it was with deepest concern that I followed developments this morning (August 15) in connection with incidents in the northeast corner of Lake Tiberias.”
“Investigations of both Israeli and Syrian complaints are underway, ” Gen. Bull said in his report. “Without prejudging the results of these investigations or the causes of the incidents, the reports from United Nations observation posts of exchange of fire and of the deplorable use by both sides of military aircraft requires me to record that both Israel and Syria have violated their unconditional obligation to observe the cease-fire ordered by the Security Council.”
SUBMITS DETAILS OF SYRIAN ATTACK ON ISRAELI PATROL BOAT
In his letter to the Security Council, Mr. Comay reported in detail on the events on Lake Tiberias yesterday morning after an Israeli police patrol launch had drifted aground on a sandbar in the northeastern part of Lake Tiberias, about 50 meters from the shore. Mr. Comay noted specifically that Lake Tiberias was entirely within Israel’s territory.
At a press conference here, Mr. Comay reported later today that efforts by Israel to pull its stranded vessel off the sandbar in Lake Tiberias were suspended this morning when Syria demanded through the United Nations that Israel permit Syria to salvage from the waters of the lake the Syrian MIG-17 jet fighter which Israeli jets shot down over the lake yesterday. Mr. Comay said that Israel had refused to grant such permission to Syria, but had informed the United Nations that Israel would be willing to return to Syria the Syrian MIG and the body of the Syrian pilot, after they had been recovered.
The Israel representative noted in his letter that Syria deliberately sent its aircraft to the scene about two hours after its gun batteries on land had stopped firing. He reported that Syria postponed accepting cease-fire proposals made by the United Nations and already accepted by Israel. “The Syrian aggression on August 15, ” Mr. Comay declared, “was marked by features which indicate that it was organized and deliberate.”
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