The success of the peace mission underway in the Middle East on behalf of the United Nations by its special emissary, Gunnar Jarring, depends entirely on a “political detente and military tranquility,” Ambassador Joseph Tekoah, Israel’s new permanent representative to the UN, declared here today.
Mr. Tekoah made the statement at a reception given him by UN correspondents after he formally presented his letters of credence to Secretary General U Thant. He said the primary problem confronting Mr. Jarring’s mission involves the question whether the Arab states “abandon their policy of warfare against Israel and decide for peace – or persist in their present attitude.”
“As long as they (the Arab states) turn their backs on peace, they refuse to negotiate, their refusal to talk to Israel is not obviously an objection to a particular method, but to the goal to which it should lead – peace. When they accept the goal, the question of method will resolve itself,” he said.
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