The United Nations Security Council failed tonight to secure agreement on the text of a resolution condemning Israel for the Lake Tiberias incident of December 11, despite concessions by the Western Powers to the Soviet Union and other Council members who wanted a more drastic condemnation than the Big Three draft provided. As a result, the Council will go into session again tomorrow morning in an effort to agree on a censure text.
One amendment which Sir Pierson Dixon, of Britain, announced for the Western Powers tonight was the insertion of the words “under the Charter” to describe the action which the Security Council would consider in the event of further acts of aggression by Israel. Arkady A. Sobeley, the Soviet delegate, had challenged the Western Powers to specify the action as invocation of Article 39 of the Chartor the section which deals with sanctions.
The Western Powers also agreed to take over an Iranian amendment which would have required Israel to release all Syrian military prisoners immediately, but modified this to require Syria, as well as Israel, to arrange with the United Nations truce chief for the release of all military prisoners.
A determined effort by Iran to secure deletion of a section of the Western draft which noted Syrian provocations in the Lake Tiberias region was rejected by the Western Powers. Herve Alphand of France pointed out that a “just balance” had to be maintained and there was a limit to the concessions the West could make.
Submitted to the Council today was a new draft resolution sponsored by Yugoslavia which, though described as a “compromise,” between the Western and Soviet positions, accepted in principle the Soviet insistence that Israel’s “aggression” entailed the responsibility for paying compensation to Syria.
During an acrimonious debate, Mr. Sobolev accused Israel of having been hostile to its rah neighbors “from the first day of its existence,” repeating the accusation against Israel voiced two weeks ago by Moscow’s Communist chief, Nikita Khruschev. Mr. Alphand inferentially accused the Soviet Union of using the present situation for propaganda purposes by declaring that “the Council should not be used to promote particular interests or as springboard for facile propaganda.”
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