United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold today gave indirect approval to the mergers of the Arab countries which took place earlier this month. At a press conference, he was asked whether the merger of Jordan and Iraq would have a favorable effect on the solution of the Arab refugee problem. In reply, he stated: “It would be foolhardy to express an opinion on that specific point. However, everything in the direction of consolidation in this divided world would be helpful–every successful effort would be helpful.”
The Secretary General said the United Nations is still studying a good many legal questions in regard to the two Arab mergers, Iraq-Jordan and Egypt-Syria. He added that he has had no official communication as yet to support a report that Syria would insist that the UN Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine must direct any problems dealing with Syria, after February 22 when federation becomes official, to the Foreign Office of the “United Arab Republic” in Cairo.
Mr. Hammarskjold said he could not go into the problem of whether the four Arab states announced as unified into two separate federations would have two UN member-ships or more. Nor could he say at this point whether he, indeed the General Assembly, would deal with accepting credentials from the new federations if and when such credentials were presented. That point, he stated, is another of the legal problems which will have to be dealt with and “we are not ready yet to deal with that point. Some of these matters depend on the legal succession. “
Asked about whether he considered the Mt. Scopus agreement between Israel and Jordan as successful, the Secretary General said “while I sincerely hope this agreement will help in the region, it is not as yet fully implemented. ” Mr. Hammarskjold denied, as reported in some dispatches, that Under Secretary Ralph J. Bunche would be sent to the Middle East to continue the negotiations regarding Mt. Scopus that had been started by Dr. Francisco Urrutia of Columbia. On that point, Mr. Hammarskjold said: “Dr. Bunche is one of the members of our team in my office who is close to the Middle East question. But there are no plans for him to go to the Middle East. “
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