A meeting of the Security Council, called by Jordan over a planned Israeli implementation of a law on registration of businesses and licensed professionals in East Jerusalem, was postponed indefinitely yesterday. Andre Berard of France, the February president, said the meeting was postponed because Israel announced previously it would defer implementation of the law for three months, until May 23.
Jordan asked for the meeting on a complaint that the law would require that such businesses and professionals now under Arab auspices be registered under Israeli law. The request was denounced by the Israeli Mission here as an attempt to involve the United Nations in “irrelevant technicalities” at a time when Middle East peace hung in the balance.
The Israeli statement referred to continued “terror warfare” by Jordan and other Arab governments against Israel, the execution of Iraqi Jews “because they are Jews,” and the continued presence of Jews in prisons and concentration camps in other Arab countries. The statement then added that in such circumstances, and particularly when Dr. Gunnar V. Jarring, the UN mideast peace envoy, was about to resume his peace mission, the Jordan complaint was “the height of frivolity and irresponsible malice.”
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