The United Nations Security Council today discussed the demand of Ambassador Abba Eban of Israel that Jordan, as a non-member state of the UN, should agree in advance to carry out any decisions which the Council may make on the cross-complaints by Israel and Jordan which are now before the Council.
The session adjourned after 30 minutes following a report by Sir Pierson Dixon, president of the Council, who said that research had established that there was no precedent involving a case brought on behalf of a non-member state by a member of the Council, as was the case with the Jordanian charges against Israel which have been brought by Lebanon. However, Sir Pierson pointed out that there were a number of instances in which non-member states had submitted statements accepting in advance the obligations of pacific settlement provided in the UN Charter.
Sir Pierson told the Security Council that Article 32 could be applied in the present case. This article of the UN Charter provides that the Council “shall lay down such conditions as it deems just for the participation of a state which is not a member of the United Nations. ” At the sametime, he did not exclude the possibility of applying Article 32 (2), as requested by Ambassador Eban.
French delegate Henri Hoppenot said the members of the Council ought to have time to reflect on the matter and consult their governments. At his suggestion the Council decided to adjourn, leaving it to the president to fix a date for the next meeting.
EBAN CHARGES JORDAN WITH MURDERING WOUNDED ISRAELIS
Meanwhile, Ambassador Eban today submitted a letter to the Security Council charging Jordan with the killing this Sunday of two Israeli policemen, who after being wounded by rifle fire and dragged into Jordan, “were murdered in cold blood by elements of the armed forces of Jordan who had penetrated into Israel territory.”
Mr. Eban requested that his letter be circulated among all members of the United Nations. He pointed out that “it is especially urgent that the true facts concerning this Jordanian act of aggression leading to Israel casualties should be made known, in view of the distorted evidence presented by Jordan to the United Nations authorities.”
(Maj. Gen. Vagn Bennike, head of the UN truce observation corps in Palestine, in a letter to Premier Moshe Sharett made public in Jerusalem yesterday, urged Israel to return to the Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission. Israel, which walked out of the MAC in March over its failure to pin responsibility for the Scorpion Pass murders on Jordan, is understood to be studying Gen. Bennike’s note.)
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