The views of the United States Government on the problem of the Suez blockade against Israel were outlined here before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by G. Lewis Jones, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.
Mr. Jones said that an upsurge in the tension on the frontiers between Israel and the United Arab Republic “appears now to be subsiding.” However, he emphasized that “a particularly difficult and continuing problem in Arab-Israel relations is the question of the restrictions imposed on the transit of Israeli ships and cargoes through the Suez Canal.”
The United States, he said, “has consistently maintained its support for the principle of freedom of transit through Suez. In addition to ourselves, some 23 other states made statements in support of this principle during the recent UN General Assembly.” He added that the State Department continues “to believe that the United Nations channel affords the best prospect for achieving progress on this problem and is “actively supporting the Secretary General’s endeavors.
It was the hope of the State Department that Mr, Hammarskjold’s efforts on Suez “will be brought to an early and successful conclusion,” he stated. At the same time he reported that despite United States and United Nations efforts, “neither the Arab states nor Israel have shown the degree of willingness to negotiate or compromise” on the Arab refugee issue. Such negotiation or compromise was necessary to insure a peaceful and lasting settlement of this problem, he emphasized.
Urging continued American support of the UNRWA program for Arab refugees, Mr. Jones said that “had UNRWA gone out of existence, this would have created serious internal security problems for all of the Arab host governments and would have been a blow to the general stability of the Near East adversely affecting the security of Israel.”
He termed the Arab refugee problem “a most important element” in Arab-Israeli differences, and told the committee that “We would be deluding ourselves were we to say there is any hope for an early solution for this problem.” The problem, he said, would have to be solved “by the states in the area themselves, if it is going to be a viable lasting solution. I do not believe that a solution can be imposed from outside.”
C. Douglas Dillon, Under Secretary of State, also appeared before the committee and was subjected to much questioning on the Arab-Israel stalemate. He told the committee the Arab refugee situation continued to be “a serious potential source of instability in the Near East.”
The resettlement has not proved practicable because of the political realities in the area, Mr. Dillon said. “We have succeeded in having the Palestine Conciliation. Commission reconvened, and we hope that it will make possible a more fundamental attack on the refugee problem,” he declared.
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