The Arab-Israel conciliation conference, called by the United Nations Palestine Conciliation Commission, opened here tonight unofficially under circumstances which indicate that the parley’s chances of success are doubtful. The official opening of the conference will probably not take place before Wednesday.
The first approaches tonight among the delegates were strictly social and informal. The absence of officials of high rank among the delegates of both parties, as well as the continued refusal on the part of the Arabs to sit around the same table with the Israelis, were the two reasons suggested for skepticism with which informed observers viewed the meeting.
A spokesman for the Conciliation Commission announced that all five countries invited to participate in the conference had accepted the invitation. They are: Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Three other members of the Arab League–Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Iraq–have not been invited, but they have not been excluded, he added. The spokesman refused to say whether there will be face-to- face talks between the Arab and Israeli delegates. “The Commission will meet by itself and with the delegates,” he stated.
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