New Four-power Resolution on Arab Refugees Expected at U.N. Today

A member of the American delegation at the United Nations today officially indicated that a revised four-power resolution on the Palestine Arab refugee problem may be submitted tomorrow to the U.N. Special Political Committee as a result of the conference which the four powers have been holding with Arab delegates, who objected to the original resolution presented jointly by the United States, Britain, France and Turkey.

The original resolution, withdrawn from the floor by its sponsors after the Arabs charged that it would interfere with their sovereignty, would have given approval to a report by John Blandford, American director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for the refugees, which recommended a three-year, $250,000,000 program for relief and reintegration of the refugees within the economies of the countries in which they now reside.

Emphasizing that he speaks “for all the 900,000 refugees from Palestine, “Dr. Izzat Tannous, a representative of the refugees in Lebanon yesterday told the Political Committee that the refugees would have welcomed the new $250,000,000 aid proposal, but were afraid of “ulterior motives” to deprive them of their homes forever. He was invited to take a seat at the Committee meeting by Syria and Iraq. Israel Ambassador Abba S. Eban did not object, but asked that the Arab refugee leader present proper credentials.

Dr. Tannous told the Committee that the Arab refugees had lost faith in the United Nations. The refugees, he stated, would accept no substitutes for their own homes. Consequently, he asked, in the name of all the refugees, for three things: first, that all General Assembly resolutions on Palestine be implemented; second, that U.N.R.W.A. abstain from carrying out re-integration schemes outside the refugees’ own country; and, third, that all financial and political support be withheld from Israel until it complied with Assembly resolutions.