Israel formally notified the Security Council tonight that Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion is to meet with President Arturo Frondizi of Argentina. The notification was given in a letter from Israel’s permanent representative, Michael S. Comay, to Council President, Dr. Tingfu F. Tsiang, of China.
In his letter, Mr. Comay indicated that Israel wanted postponement or cancelation of tomorrow’s scheduled meeting of the Security Council to debate a complaint filed last week by Argentina. Argentina accused Israel of violating its sovereignty by “illicitly and clandestinely” transferring Nazi killer Adolf Eichmann from Argentine territory to Israeli soil.
Mr. Comay pointed out that negotiations between Israel and Argentina were still continuing in accordance with some of the very provisions of the UN Charter invoked in its complaint by the Argentine delegation. The Charter holds that negotiations be exhausted before action is taken by the Security Council. Thus, the Israel letter implied, public debate of the issue in the Security Council would not be appropriate at the present time.
As of tonight, however, the Council was still scheduled to meet. It was believed that the Council would be convened on scheduled time but would adjourn subject to the “call of the chair” after the body had taken note of Israel’s letter.
TO MEET THIS WEEKEND IN EUROPE
Authoritative sources in Europe stated that the Frondizi – Ben-Gurion meeting would take place between Friday of this week and next Sunday, either at Brussels, or at The Hague.
In Brussels today, where he was winding up a State visit, Mr. Ben-Gurion flatly refused to concede there was any question over Eichmann. He said, in a television interview: “There is no Eichmann problem. Eichmann will be tried in Israel.”
Both Israel and Argentina were ready today to argue their respective cases before the Security Council. Mrs. Golda Meir, Israel Foreign Minister, will defend Israel’s position when such a defense becomes necessary. She interrupted an American lecture tour to direct Israel’s case here.
The Argentine case will be presented by that country’s permanent UN representative, Dr. Mario Amadeo. The latter is known to have talked on the telephone with Mr. Frondizi, and to have insisted that his delegation continue its action here against Israel, without asking for a Council recess on the issue.
ARGENTINE DELEGATE ACCUSED OF PRO-NAZISM
Two New York newspapers, the Yiddish-language Forward and the New York Post, today accused Dr. Amadeo of having been, during World War II, “a trusted collaborator of the sicherheitsdienst,” the Nazi intelligence service. Both newspapers based their reports on a quotation from a booklet issued in 1946 by the United States Department of State which had characterized Dr. Amadeo as a Nazi intelligence “collaborator.”
In Jerusalem, the Israel Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee held two special sessions today, devoted to discussion of Argentina’s complaint and general argentine Israeli relations. The committee heard reports from Haim Yahil, the Foreign Ministry’s director general, and Abba S. Eban, former chairman of Israel’s delegation to the United Nations, who visited Argentina last month.
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