And the United States were the only countries to vote last Friday against a resolution calling for greater cooperation between the United Nations and the countries of the Arab League.
The resolution was adopted in the General Assembly by an overwhelming majority of 153 countries. There were no abstentions.
The resolution, sponsored by Libya on behalf of the Arab states, said increased cooperation between the U.N. and Arab League states would help achieve the implementation of U.N. resolutions on the questions of Palestine and the Middle East.
Clovis Maksoud, chairman of the Arab League at the U.N., told the General Assembly that cooperation between the U.N. and his organization has broad implications for development projects and for the closing of the gap between the developed and developing worlds. He asserted that U.N. programs in the Arab world — such as those of the U.N. Children’s Fund, the U.N Development Children’s Program and the World Health Organization — had a far-reaching impact.
The representative of Israel, Jeremy Nissim-Issacharoff, charged that activities of the Arab League violated the U.N. Charter because its “raison d’etre” has been to deny the existence of the State of Israel.
Ambassador Herbert Okun of the United States, explaining his vote against the resolution, said it called for implementation of U.N. resolutions on the Mideast which the U.S. vote against. General Assembly resolutions on the Mideast have called for the establishment of a Palestinian state and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from territories occupied in the 1967 Six Day War, including East Jerusalem.
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