Officials here voiced satisfaction today with the decision by the European Security Conference in Geneva yesterday to give Israel a hearing. The officials indicated that efforts by Holland, Denmark and Canada were responsible for the unanimous decision which came when Yugoslavia and Malta–proponents of the Arab cause–agreed to drop their opposition to Israel being heard. Israel will present its views on Oct. 23, Syria will be heard Oct. 30, Egypt Nov. 6 and Morocco Nov. 13. Algeria and Tunisia will also speak.
(According to a report from Geneva yesterday, the Conference ruled that the non-European states can speak only on agenda items which mainly concern European security and East-West cooperation in economic and humanitarian matters. This would prevent them from injecting the Arab-Israeli dispute into the Conference proceedings.)
Officials here recalled that Israel was not interested in having the Mideast problem on the Conference agenda. But at the first session in Helsinki last June, Malta’s Premier Dom Mintoff demanded that the Maghreb states (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) be heard. Israel sought to forestall a precedent of allowing the Arabs to express their case while Israel’s went unheard.
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