The Israeli Government today submitted to the U.N. Security Council a memorandum charging Britain with the “fomenting of an artificial crisis” at the precise moment when armistice negotiations between Egypt and Israel are about to begin in Rhodes under United Nations auspices.
The memorandum, presented by Aubrey Eban, Israeli representative at the United Nations, calls upon the Security Council “to investigate this situation, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security.” It emphasizes that the Israeli Government desires no conflict with Britain, nor does it in way threaten the political or territorial integrity of any of the Arab states with which Britain has treaty relations.
“Accordingly, the Government of Israel will do everything to insure that the forthcoming armistice negotiations shall open under the best possible auspices,” the document emphasizes. “It is difficult, however, to see signs of a similar concern in the attitude of the United Kingdom,” it points out. The memorandum mates it clear that “the Government of Israel attaches primary importance” to the armistice talks.
CITES BRITISH VIOLATION OF U.N. TRUCE IN SENDING TROOPS TO AQABA
Expressing “grave concern at the menacing attitude” adopted by the British Government toward the state of Israel, the memorandum says that the military, naval, aerial and political measures which Britain has taken in recent days appear likely not only to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, but also “to widen the limits of a local conflict which might otherwise respond to the process of unprejudiced negotiations.”
The memorandum then enumerates the British military, aerial and naval movements to which the Israel Government takes objection, especially the sending of British military forces to Transjordan. It draws the attention of the Security Council to its own truce resolution of May 29, 1948, which called upon all governments “to undertake that they will not introduce fighting personnel into Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan and Yemen during the cease-fire.”
Since Israel does not threaten the territorial integrity of Transjordan, the sudden dispatch of troops and planes by Britain to the Aqaba area, in defiance of the U.N, truce resolution, can only be interpreted as “being designed to threaten the region of Israel lying to the southern Negev,” the Israeli memorandum states.
Elaborating on the memorandum at a press conference after its submission, Eban said that the Council can investigate the Israeli complaint under its own resolution of May 29, 1948, or under Article 34 of the U.N. Charter which empowers the Council to investigate any situation, the continuation of which may endanger inter-national peace and security.
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