Tekoah Says Lebanon Whitewashes Aggression in Denying Responsibility for Border Terror

The Israeli Government charged today that the March 18 Lebanese letter to the Security Council president denying responsibility for terrorist attacks on Israel from Lebanese soil was “an unabashed attempt to whitewash aggression.” In a letter to the Council president, Dr. Joaquin Vallejo Arbalaez of Colombia, Israeli Ambassador Yosef Tekoah declared that “instead of recognizing Lebanon’s obligations as a member of the United Nations, the Lebanese Government serves notice that it supports continued warfare against Israel, and in particular warfare by terrorists.” The Israeli delegate stated that “under general international law and the United Nations charter, the Government of Lebanon bears full responsibility for armed attacks carried out from its territory against Israel, whether by regular or by irregular forces.” This responsibility, he said, “is particularly grave in view of the fact that the aggressive operations by irregular forces stationed on Lebanese territory are being conducted on the basis of official agreements concluded between these forces and the Government of Lebanon.”

The Israeli document rejected as “especially baseless” the Lebanese argument that continuation of terrorist attacks was inevitable because of Lebanon’s internal problems.” “Considerations of internal politics,” Mr. Tekoah wrote, cannot absolve Beirut of its international obligations. Mr. Tekoah recalled the March 8 statement by Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban announcing Israel’s readiness to sign a peace treaty immediately on the basis of existing boundaries, and said the offer had been rejected. “Even in the absence of a readiness for peace with Israel,” Mr. Tekoah noted, “it is incumbent upon Lebanon to abide by its obligations under the cease-fire accepted by it July 31, 1967.