Israel warned the United Nations Security Council today that the United Arab Republic had intensified “its policy of hostility against Israel” and said “its campaign of open incitement to war has reached dangerous dimensions.”
In a letter addressed to Sir Pierson Dixon, president of the Security Council, Ambassador Yosef Tekoah, acting head of the Israel delegation, pointed out that “warlike threats” against, Israel voiced by President Nasser of the UAR “are accompanied by extensive military preparations in both provinces of the United Arab Republic, directed against Israel.”
The Israeli letter declared that tranquility could be restored to the area only if the UAR abandoned its policy of active hostility against Israel, ceased its campaign of incitement to war and desisted from acts of aggression. Only renunciation of this policy, Israel affirmed, could make it possible to bolster United Nations authority and secure compliance with the UN Charter. “It is therefore essential to direct all efforts towards terminating this illegal and dangerous policy,” it advised.
The letter renewed again Israel’s offer to meet Syrian representatives to discuss measures for ensuring peace on the border, and with the villagers of Tawafik in order to settle differences regarding land cultivation in the demilitarized zone.
Although it did not specifically identify the report by Maj. Gen, Carl C. von Horn, chief of staff of the UN truce organization, on the Syrian border situation, the Israel letter noted that “certain communications submitted recently to the Security Council might tend to blur the fundamental issues of this dangerous situation.
“Past experience in Israel-Arab relations,” the letter stated, “has demonstrated the perils inherent in the disregard for the basic attitude of the parties. Diversion of attention, instead, to technical details of secondary importance, frequently leaves the real maladies unattended.”
U. N. TRUCE CHIEF REPORTS ON SYRIAN-ISRAELI BORDER CLASHES
The detailed report on the Syrian-Israeli border disturbances, submitted Feb. 16 to the Security Council by Gen, von Horn, was made public today. The 60-page document which detailed the history of the demilitarized zone in dispute over the last ten years, referred to the “present dangerous situation” which had developed in the zone. The report was critical of Israeli actions in the area and of the Israel Government’s failure to accept the Chief of Staff’s findings on January 20.
In these findings, Gen. von Horn proposed a division of land in the demilitarized zone between Israeli and Arab cultivators, the two areas to be separated by a 10-meter buffer zone. This division, he said, would not impair the legal claims of either side but provide a practical measure to facilitate the return of tranquility.
“If disputes about land ceased,” he told the Security Council, “there would be no motive for Israel to send into the demilitarized zone border police in armored vehicles, no motive either for Syria to send national guards or other personnel.”
Gen, von Horn disclosed that earlier this month he renewed efforts to secure Israeli agreement to his January 20 findings and to having Israeli and Arab residents and cultivators of the demilitarized zone meet to work out apportionment of land there. He advised the Israelis at that time that the attack on Tawafik and other developments had not created a “propitious atmosphere” for acceptance of Israeli proposals for a meeting with the Syrians to discuss pacification of the frontier.
ISRAEL OUTLINES CHARGES AGAINST SYRIA; REITERATES OFFER
The Israeli document reviewed the history of Israel-Syrian relations since the Syrian invasion in 1948, noting that “Syria has persistently refused to conclude a peace settlement and has continued to pursue a policy of active hostility towards Israel.”
The letter charged that Syrian military positions are still being maintained in the Tawafik area inside the demilitarized zone “despite the UN truce supervision organization requests to remove them.” It said there were no Israel army forces in the zone.
The Israeli communication also sharply challenged “decisions” of the Israel-Syrian Mixed Armistice Commission reported to the Security Council. It pointed out that Israel had not been represented at the meetings arid that Israel’s complaints had not been considered. The letter reminded the Security Council that UN military observers had found Tawafik to be strongly fortified and listed military equipment, including 82 mm. antitank guns found there in the Israeli attack on Feb. 1.
In reiterating its offers for a meeting of representatives of the Israeli and Arab villages of Beit Katzir and Tawafik to settle the land cultivation question, and for a meeting of Israel and Syrian representatives to discuss means of preserving quiet and tranquility on the border, the Israeli letter stressed the provision that “nothing pertaining to the demilitarized zone west of that boundary is raised.”
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