The Israel proposal for an immediate Israel-Jordan high level parley at the headquarters of the United Nations to consider means of easing the tension between the two countries-made by Israeli Ambassador Abba Eban last Thursday-may be touched upon today at the U.N. Security Council when the debate on the Palestine problem resumes.
Members of the Security Council, with the exception of Dr. Charles Malik of Lebanon, the lone Arab delegate on the Council, were reported today to have expressed great interest in Mr. Eban’s proposal. Some of them, however, feel that there is little likelihood that the Arabs will agree to it. The general feeling is that the Israeli proposal may put the stress on the Security Council’s consideration of the problem of the Arab-Israel tension more directly on what can be done to prevent further violence.
During the week-end, Mr. Eban met with U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold and discussed the proposal with him. He also urged the Secretary General to circulate the proposal among the U.N. member delegations as a document.
Mr. Hammarskjold was to sound out Jordan on its reaction toward Israel’s offer. Dr. Yussef Heykal, Jordanian minister in Washington, said the proposal would have to be considered by his government at Amman. Jordan is not a member of the United Nations, and Dr. Heykal said negotiations in the U.N. were solely concerned with the “massacres at Kibya.”
AMERICAN ZIONISTS CONCERNED OVER STAND OF U.S.
The American Zionist Council sent a telegram to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles emphasizing its “grave concern” over published reports that the American delegation at the United Nations will co-sponsor a resolution in the Security Council omitting any recommendation for direct Arab-Israel peace talks.
“We hope that these reports are inaccurate,” the AZC said in its message. “We believe that failure to summon the parties to immediate peace negotiations would be a retreat from our past position and a grave disservice to peace. We sincerely trust that our country will use its great moral influence and prestige to hasten a firm and lasting settlement.”
(In Washington, Secretary General Abdel Khalek Hassouna of the Arab League attacked “the Zionist power in the United States” and said that the United States must choose between cooperation with the Arab world or the loss of American strategic bases and economic interests in the Middle East.)
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.