United Nations secretary General Dag Hammarskjold today indicated that he does not consider the projected Israel-Jordan direct talks in Jerusalem on armistice problems as cancelled.
Mr. Hammarskjold issued a statement emphasizing that he considers that Article XII of the Israel-Jordan armistice agreement–according to which a party to the agreement may call upon him to convoke a conference–is mandatory upon him. The statement explained that Mr. Hammarskjold’s decision not to pursue the matter for the present “has only the immediate significance that he has found present circumstances would not warrant his fixing a date for the conference to which he has already invited Israel and Jordan.”
This decision, the statement stressed, does not bar a follow-up on the part of the UN Secretary General of previous contacts, if he should consider that a change of the situation would warrant such a step. The statement was issued to counteract a report from Jordan to the effect that the stand taken by Mr. Hammarskjold on the proposed Israel-Jordan conference in Jerusalem implies that he considers the attitude adopted by the Jordanian Government as “correct.”
Mr. Hammarskjold makes it clear in his statement that his decision not to pursue the matter for the present “in no way reflects concurrence with the reasons given by the Jordanian Government” in rejecting the UN invitation to attend the planned talks in Jerusalem.
(Israel Ambassador Abba Eban, speaking today in Washington at the International Planning Conference for Israel Bonds, said that he was “gratified” to have received word from United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold that he cannot concur with Jordan’s reasons for refusing to attend the proposed Jerusalem parley with Israel and that he continues to maintain the obligatory character of Article XII of the Israel-Jordan armistice. Mr. Eban said his government is now considering its course of action “in the light of this clear Jordanian violation.”)
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