Israel today is awaiting word from the United Nations Secretariat as to what action, if any, the UN intends to take in connection with resumption by Egypt of its anti-Israeli blockade of the Suez Canal.
Joseph Tekoah, Israel’s deputy permanent representative here, took up the matter with Under Secretary Ralph J. Bunche and Andrew W. Cordier, executive assistant to Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold. The latter is absent from Headquarters on official business.
Israel’s specific complaint involves Egyptian seizure of a Greek freighter, flying the Liberian flag, which was halted at Port Said as the ship was attempting to negotiate passage through the Suez Canal on the way from Haifa to a port in Ceylon. The vessel was carrying phosphates and cement. The Egyptians not only stopped the ship but, reportedly, confiscated the entire cargo.
Under a Security Council resolution adopted September 1, 1951, Egypt is forbidden to blockade the Canal against shipping to and from Israel. Egypt violated that Council resolution many times, but this instance is the first of the kind since prior to Israel’s Sinai campaign of 1956.
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