Security Council Capitulates to Arabs on “mutually Acceptable” Peace

Arab representatives at the United Nations today scored a victory–with the aid of the Soviet Union–when the Security Council adopted a British resolution on the Arab-Israel issue from which had been deleted a paragraph stating that the Security Council is “conscious of the need to create conditions in which a peaceful settlement on a mutually acceptable basis of the dispute between the parties can be made. “

The representatives of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria insisted on the elimination of this paragraph from the British resolution, which was intended to give UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold encouragement in his continued efforts to achieve a settlement between Israel and the Arab countries. The representatives of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Iran and Nationalist China supported the Arabs at the Security Council and urged Britain to delete the paragraph, Iran presented an amendment to the British resolution which the British delegation accepted today.

In objecting to the paragraph, the representatives of the Arab nations made it clear that they did not want any “mutually acceptable” peace with Israel, They insisted that the resolution should limit itself only to the armistice agreements and the cease-fire pledges given Mr. Hammarskjold by their governments.

In capitulating to the Arabs, Sir Pierson Dixon, head of the British delegation to the United Nations, told the Security Council today that he was deleting the paragraph from his resolution and was accepting the Iranian amendment “in the interests of unanimity. ” James A. Wadsworth, in behalf of the United States, announced briefly that the United States would vore for the resolution as amended by Sir Pierson. But Herve Alphand, head of the French delegation, delivered a stiff reprimand to the Arab delegates for insisting on the deletion of the paragraph. He warned them against interpreting the withdrawal of the wording for a “mutually acceptable plan” as an indication that the Council has given up hope of achieving peace in the Middle East.

EBAN SAYS ISRAEL IS “DEEPLY DISTURBED” BY THE DELETION

After the vote had been taken, Israel Ambassador Abba Eban addressed the Security Council in a tone which was extremely grave, expressing the mixed feelings of the Israel Government in regard to the amended resolution. On the one hand, he said, the Security Council has “just been exalted to a high level of moral authority” by deciding to continue the Secretary General’s jurisdiction in connection with the Middle East problem. On the other hand, he said, Israel is deeply disturbed by the fact that the Council has failed to reaffirm openly that peace in the Middle East must result from a “mutually acceptable” agreement.

Israel, Mr. Eban continued, is disturbed by some of the “somber and disquieting” views expressed during the debate on the resolution, “The dream and the passion to destroy Israel was demonstrated here,” he said. “Cynicism was expressed here with a view to setting aside previous agreements violently under the impact of destructive fury.”

Mr. Eban pointed out that actually the resolution, by reterring to an earlier resolution adopted by the Council on Aug. 11, 1949, did reaffirm the fact that peace in the Middle East must come about through mutual acceptability. An earlier resolution adopted by the General Assembly, in 1948, he reminded the Council, had also imposed on Israel and the Arab states alike the obligation to “seek agreement” toward ultimate peace,

The head of the Israel delegation reminded the Soviet Union that its own government had called for a mutually acceptable agreement between Israel and the Arabs last April; and that the Soviet Union and Britain had issued a joint statement to the same effect two weeks later. He recalled the call for a settlement mutually acceptable to the Arabs and Israel issued last August by Secretary of State Foster Dulles. He also chided Yugoslavia mildly for backing the Arabs in the drive to delete the clause finally stricken from the draft resolution by Britain.

Mr. Eban expressed Israel’s “deep concern” over the manner in which the Arab delegations were able to “silence the Security Council, smother its voice, ” The British deletion, he said, has “reduced the prospects of the Secretary General toward completion of his mission. Only today again Israel has been attacked from Jordan. The situation is still acute,” he pointed out.