Security Council to Take Up Middle East Question Next Week

The United Nations Security Council will be called into formal session either next Monday or Tuesday to resume consideration of the Middle East situation. Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg indicated today that there was a distinct possibility that a draft resolution will be submitted to the Council which could be a first step in easing the deadlock that has prevented any change since the Arab-Israeli cease-fire agreements were negotiated last June.

Since the end of the general debate in the General Assembly on Oct. 13, there has been a feverish behind-the-scenes activity here and in many world capitals seeking a formula to end the stalemate in the Middle East and get some action leading to a resolution of the Arab-Israeli dispute. The major talks have proceeded here and in Washington but attention has also been focussed on Cairo where Sir Harold Beeley, former British ambassador there, is on a special mission from British Foreign Secretary George Brown, seeking to reestablish close Anglo-Egyptian ties and to get the Suez Canal reopened speedily.

(In London, a prominent Labor Party backbencher, Leo Abse, who represents a Welsh constituency, warned the party leadership today that the Beeley mission was causing “profound misgivings” among British Jewry who recalled the “disastrous role” Sir Harold had played in advising the British Government to oppose Jewish aspirations in Palestine in 1945.)

Mr. Goldberg had separate meetings in Washington yesterday with Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin of the Soviet Union– their second meeting within a week — and with Foreign Minister Mahmoud Riad o. Egypt. Ambassador Gideon Rafael met last night with Senjin Tsuruoka of Japan, chairman of the Security Council, and Mr. Tsuruoka presided today at a meeting of the ten non-permanent members of the Council. After the meeting, Mr. Tsuruoka said “no obvious common ground” had been found for Council action. Efforts would continue, he said, and the 10-nation group would meet again on Monday.

Foreign Minister Abba S. Eban was to return from Jerusalem this weekend to meet Secretary of State Dean Rusk in Washington on Monday. The Arab delegations were to meet tonight with the Egyptian Foreign Minister.

SEE DRAFT RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING DISPATCH OF U.N. REPRESENTATIVE

Largely on the basis of comments by Mr. Goldberg, it was predicted here today that the planned draft resolution for submission to the Security Council would express general principles upon which a Middle East settlement should be based. It would have only a single operative paragraph, authorizing Secretary-General Thant to appoint a special representative in the Middle East to act as a channel of communication between the Arabs and the Israelis, The Israelis made it clear earlier this week that they would not object to the appointment of a U.N. representative who would be charged with facilitating negotiations between the Arab states and Israel, The Israelis made it clear, however, that they would not accept a mediator.

The United States, it appeared, would be the primary sponsor of the draft resolution envisaged today but it was assumed that other powers would join in its submission. In Canada, a leading newspaper, the Toronto Telegram, editorially taxed the Canadian Government for failure to take a sufficiently active role in the U.N. talks. The paper warned editorially that “rising pressure on Israel to agree to Arab offers through third-party offices simply means advocating a return to pre-war conditions that have kept the Middle East in turmoil for two decades.”