Refusing to state whether his report would put the onus of the Palestine war on the Arabs, J.N. Palestine mediator Count Folke Bernadotte said today upon his arrival at LaGuardia Field that his 21-page report would be submitted to a special emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council tomorrow.
“I am still keenly disappointed,” he told newsmen, “that the Arabs have not agreed to extend the truce. That was a setback. But I feel we must expect temporary setbacks. I am still an optimist about reaching a final settlement.”
During his last two days in the Hear East, Bernadotte said, he concentrated most of his efforts on the plan to demilitarize Jerusalem. “I am very keen,” he said, “to see the results of these talks, for obvious reasons.” The mediator said both Arabs and Jews had requested that he continue the attempt to reach a peaceful settlement. He will fly back to Rhodes on Friday, according to present plans.
(The U.S. Government is continuing its efforts to extend the U.N. truce in Palestine, a State Department spokesman said today in Washington, pointing out that the U.S. had requested a special meeting of the Security Council to hear the report of Count Bernadotte.)
In answer to a question citing Soviet charges that Bernadotte’s “suggestions” for amputating the Negev from the Jewish state were a violation of the U.N. decision to partition Palestine, the mediator said he had “certainly not” exceeded the powers assigned to him by the General Assembly and the Security Council.
Despite reports from Palestine that large-scale fighting has flared upon most fronts, he declared: “I don’t think either party really wants war. The truce has ended but the war has not really begun.”
A letter from Israeli representative to the United Nations Aubrey S. Eban to U.N. Secretary-General Trygve Lie, made public here today, took issue with a message from the mediator to Lake Success–referring to the resumption of hostilities in Palestine–on the grounds that the “mediator’s statement is entirely inaccurate, since it gives the impression that neither party had agreed not to resume hostilities.”
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.
