Security Council’s ‘urgent’ Meeting Continues Today; Arab Delegates Scored

The Security Council’s “urgent” resumption of debate on the Middle East crisis, requested last week by Egypt, went over for still another day after a brief session this morning in which Israel and the United States castigated the Arab delegations, while both the U.S.A. and Britain pleaded with the 15-member body for “action now.” When the Council reconvenes tomorrow, Egypt’s “urgent” call will be exactly one week old.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Abba Eban again told the Council that his Government will “maintain and respect” the cease-fire lines until these are “replaced by a peace treaty and secured frontiers.” He charged the Arab spokesmen here with singing “hymns of hate, with no proposals for peace.”

United States Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg told the Arabs they are trying to rewrite history by accusing the U.S.A. of delaying Middle East peace. He declared: “What we want now is action, not rhetoric.” Britain’s Lord Caradon scored the Syrian representative, Ambassador Adib Daoudi, for stressing “discord and deadlock.” He pleaded with the Council to take action this week and to decide whether “we are going forward or backward.” Lord Caradon did not introduce, as expected, a British draft resolution which had been foreseen as a possible bow to the Arab world. The Argentine and Brazilian delegations, which had led a Latin American move toward another draft resolution, presumably offering an anti-Israeli “compromise,” had been scheduled to speak at the Council today and to offer their draft. But they took their names off the speakers’ list. There were press reports here that Israel President Zalman Shazar had appealed personally to the presidents of Argentina and Brazil, requesting them to order their delegates hold back on their planned moves for a day or two.