Security Council, in Impasse, Seeks Way to Dispose of Jordan, Israeli Complaints

The United Nations Security Council met this afternoon for the fourth time to consider the Jordan-Israeli cross-complaints of cease-fire violations on March 29 but it was almost completely at a loss as to how to proceed. When the session opened, only the Jordanian representative had been inscribed on the speaker’s list. None of the major powers or neutral states, apparently, was prepared to come forward with any proposals of a substantive nature and the Council was, to all intents, at an impasse.

At least three different proposals for a resolution or concensus on which the Security Council could mark the issue closed were being discussed, but none of them had reached the drafting state. One proposal, given little possibility of acceptance, was to call on Israel and Jordan to agree to the stationing of observers in the cease-fire area — a proposal which Secretary-General U Thant would like to see adopted. Another would be for the Security Council to reaffirm its Nov. 22 resolution and admonish both sides to cooperate more closely with Ambassador Gunnar V. Jarring, the UN special envoy in the Mideast. A third proposal was for a simple resolution or declaration calling on both sides to observe the terms of the cease-fire.

A two-and-a-half hour session of the Council on Tuesday resolved itself into a slugging match between the Arab spokesmen and Ambassador Yosef Tekoah of Israel. The Israeli envoy then answered the Arab charges against Israel one by one and launched into a vigorous attack on the Arab states for their treatment of the Jewish minorities in their hands.