The Security Council has decided to postpone its decision on transferring the Middle East debate to Geneva when it resumes next month.
Kenya, India and other Security Council members are in favor of transferring the debate to Geneva because they feel the Arab viewpoint can not obtain a fair hearing in New York.
Israel UN Ambassador Yosef Tekoah declined to comment on the proposal. He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today, “When the Security Council members will reach a decision we will refer to it.”
A spokesman for the US Mission at the UN said the United States “does not feel that a move to Geneva will further the work of the Council. The Council is better facilitated at United Nations headquarters.”
Kenneth D. Jamieson, acting head of the British delegation. who will be the Council president next month, remarked, “Members will be acting on their own good sense and their instructions–not on what people in the city where they are meeting are thinking about the matter.”
Samar Sen, India’s chief delegate, commented that when Israeli Ambassador Tekoah speaks he receives all of the attention Sen said he wasn’t objecting to the attention given Israel but what he called the, “total exclusion of other viewpoints.”
The New York Times noted yesterday that the cost of the Geneva move which is estimated be tween $97,000 and $150,000, may cause some delegations to decide against the shift. The Security Council has not set a date for future consideration of the matter.
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