The United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine was today still hoping to keep the Arab-Israeli peace talks here going despite this week’s blow by the Arab League’s political committee, which rejected out of hand the commission’s five point peace proposal. The Arab League asserted that the commission had no right to make “certain of the proposals.”
Observers here feel that this week is the crucial one for the conference. The Arab League’s rejection of the commission’s plan was seen by some observers as a repudiation of earlier promises by the Arab states to consider the U.N. proposals.
The commission, however, seems determined to keep the parley alive although the results so far seem meaningless. One U.N. spokesman declared “that the Arab League decision does not affect us.” He based this view on the fact that the League, to which all four of the Arab states at the conference are affiliated, has no official status at the talks here.
The spokesman added that the commission has “never insisted” that any party accept its proposals. He stated that the commission itself was always ready to consider all other suggestions. However, he refused to comment when asked to explain the apparent contradiction between the Arab offer at the outset of the talks to discuss the commission’s proposals and this week’s refusal to consider them.
Although the commission has refused to make public the results of the conference thus far, it is understood that both parties are considering whether they will accept the commission’s latest proposal to disregard the preamble to its own five-point plan. The preamble asked all parties to pledge that they would not use force to settle mutual problems, and was supported by the Israeli offer to accomplish this purpose by signing non aggression pacts with the four Arab states at the parley. The commission’s proposal to forget the preamble was contained in letters to Israel and the Arab states last week-end asserting that it took for granted that both sides had good intentions and would not use force.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
