Syria called today for Israel’s expulsion from the United Nations. Addressing the 31st General Assembly, Syrian Ambassador Mowaffak Allaf urged that body “to act firmly and reconsider Israel’s membership in the UN.” He accused Israel of responsibility for the stalemate in the Middle East and warned that as long as Israel continues to occupy Arab territory there would be no peace in that region.
Allaf also said that no settlement was possible as long as the legitimate rights of the Palestinians were not fulfilled. He attacked partial solutions in the Middle East which he claimed had proved to be a failure and only served to perpetuate the situation of “no war, no peace.”
He said Syria was opposed to step-by-step diplomacy to resolve the conflict but would welcome any initiative based on the recognition of the rights of the Palestinians and the need for Israel’s withdrawal from all occupied territories. He added that the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people should participate in all international peace efforts in the Middle East.
ARABS ANGRY WITH BRITAIN
Meanwhile, Arab diplomats here expressed displeasure over British Foreign Secretary Anthony Crosland’s statement in his address to the General Assembly yesterday that an essential element in a Middle East settlement “will be land for the Palestinians, not necessarily a sovereign state but a place where they will be free to look after their own affairs.”
Crosland’s remarks also evoked surprise from some Western diplomats. One Ambassador said they were “similar to the Allon plan.” Crosland, and his spokesman here told reporters at a press conference that the statement didn’t give any blue-prints but was only a possibility to meet the. Palestinians’ national aspirations. They claimed it was simply a reiteration of Britain’s past position. But diplomatic sources here believe it constituted a new British position in the Middle East.
EGYPT SOUNDS WAR DRUMS
Reports from Cairo, meanwhile, quoted President Anwar Sadat as warning today that if efforts to find a political solution to the Middle East conflict failed. Egypt would resort to war. Addressing the armed forces on the third anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, Sadat reportedly declared: “There is a struggle for a peaceful solution. If it does not lead to a peace based on justice, we shall again resort to the military solution.” Sadat rejected a resumption of the step-by-step diplomacy of Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger which resulted in the Sinai interim agreements with Israel in 1974 and 1975.
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