Security Council Resumes Debate on Arab-israeli Crisis; Israel Proposes Action

The Security Council resumed its discussion this afternoon on the Egyptian-Israeli crisis after hearing the views yesterday of the United States. Britain, the Soviet Union, Egypt and Israel.

The representatives of the United States and Britain told the Security Council that their governments are firmly behind the principle that the Strait of Tiran was an international waterway, and must remain open to innocent ship passage to and from Israel. The Soviet Union was just as ardently opposed to that view, holding that Egypt had the right to bar Israeli shipping because it was still in a state of war with Israel. Roger Seydoux, the French permanent representative in the Council, has, thus far, remained silent.

Ambassador Gideon Rafael, head of the Israeli delegation to the United Nations, insisted in his address to the Council yesterday that Israel had the absolute right to freedom of shipping through the Tiran waterway. He proposed a five-point plan for action by the present Council session. These steps, he said, should embrace the following principles:

“1) All inflammatory statements and threats against the territorial integrity and political independence of any state should cease;

“2) The United Nations Charter’s imposition upon all members of the obligation of non-belligerance must be strictly observed;

“3) Armed forces should be withdrawn to their positions held as of the beginning of this month;

“4) All forms of armed incursion, acts of sabotage and terrorism should cease, and the governments concerned should take all steps to prevent their territory from being used for hostile acts; and

“5) In the Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Akaba there should be no interference with any shipping.”

Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg, head of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, who was the first speaker yesterday, called upon Egypt to exercise “special restraint” in regard to its blockade of the Strait of Tiran by not stopping or searching vessels attempting to pass the strait. The U.S. Ambassador pointed out that Israeli Premier Levi Eshkol had pledged to resort to political action to ensure freedom of Israeli passage through the Strait of Tiran. Declaring that the U.S. Government’s position on that issue is the same as Israel’s, Mr. Goldberg said that Mr. Eshkol’s statement was “clearly in the spirit of the request made to us in the report by Secretary-General U Thant, in which Mr. Thant asked all governments to forego belligerence.”

AMBASSADOR GOLDBERG INSISTS ON KEEPING GULF OF AKABA OPEN FOR ALL NATIONS

Mr. Goldberg called upon the Security Council to take “effective steps” to reaffirm the validity of the 1949 armistice agreements between Israel on the one hand and Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon on the other. He warned the Council that action was necessary and urgent, telling the members “the issue of war or peace lies in our hands.”

Mr. Goldberg noted that the current crisis revolved not only about the blockade of the Strait of Tiran but also on the facts that Egyptian, Israeli and Syrian armies were now confronting each other and that terrorism and sabotage in Israel must be prevented by all parties concerned. He quoted President Johnson as saying that the United States considered the blockade of Tiran and the Gulf of Akaba as illegal. He insisted that the strait, which has been open to all shipping for ten years, must be kept open while diplomacy around the world as well as here has an opportunity to pacify the situation.

Mohamed Awad El-Kony of the United Arab Republic challenged the right of Israel to any foothold on the shores of the Gulf of Akaba. He said Israel had occupied her seven miles of coastline on the gulf illegally. “We have always believed, and we still do, that Israel was planted in the Middle East by colonialism to serve the colonial interests,” he stated.

The Soviet Representative, Dr. Nikolai T. Fedorenko, told the Council that “the true culprit for dangerous worsening of tensions in the Middle East is Israel, which directly and indirectly is being supported by imperialist circles eager to restore colonialism in Arab states.” He repeated over and over again that “the situation in the Near East is linked to aggressions by Israel.” He said that Egypt took action for mobilization on May 14 because she had information that Israel planned to launch an all-out attack on Syria on May 17. He warned that “those who push Israel to the brink of the abyss must know that it is much easier to fan flames than to put them out.”

Time and again in his speech, Dr. Fedorenko voiced Moscow’s absolute condemnation of Israel and supported fully the contentions of the Egyptian Government. He declared “the Soviet Government very closely follows the situation in the Middle East and considers that the Security Council must condemn Tel Aviv’s provocations against the Arab states.”