The United Nations Security Council today authorized Count Folke Bernadotte, the Assembly appointed mediator in Palestine, to set a deadline after which all fighting in Palestine will cease for four weeks.
Acting on a suggestion made by Bernadotte, himself, in a cablegram received here today, the Council agreed without voting to lot him settle that contentious point after consultations with Arab and Jewish authorities on the spot.
Russia and the Ukraine announced that they could not associate themselves with this decision. A spokesmen for the Provisional Government of Israel commented: “Once again we have been placed in the position by the Security Council where we must go on shooting.”
A wrangle over the various reservations and assumptions made by the Arab League states and the Israeli Government in their replies to the sixth consecutive U.N. cease-fire appeal was cut short by Faris el Khoury of Syria, Council president for June, who ruled that both replies represent unconditional acceptance of the Council’s bid for peace. “These comments are not conditions,” el Khoury said.”They are put forth by both parties as safeguards for implementation.”
Aubrey Eban of Israel, after pointing out that his government had issued a cease-fire order three times in one week, sacrificing the military initiative on the mistaken assumption that Arab armies would also comply, warned the Council that this time no such order would he issued “until the Arabs announce their readiness to abide by the Council’s request. He also demanded that the new cease-fire should “become effective in daylight. He pointed out that the Israelis ceased firing last night when Jewish forces were pressing their offensive on every sector of the front, at a risk to Jewish lives and to military advantage only to find out that the Arabs had no intention of stopping.
CEASE-FIRE ARRANGEMENT MAY NOT COME INTO EFFECT FOR “SOME DAYS”
Count Bernadotto’s massage, asking the Council to let him set the new deadline, in order to allow a delay of “some days” for the establishment of a control system to check compliance “by both sides, revealed “too great an interest in technical perfection,” Eban added, in view of the fact that both sides had agreed to a cease-fire.
The Israeli representative emphasized that the arms embargo imposed by the Council’s resolution last Saturday must apply to British military stockpiles in Arab countries. This view was accepted by Sir Alexander Cadogan of Britain who told the Council: “I am authorized to say that ay Government puts exactly the some interpretation on this matter as does the Jewish Agency.”
Cadogan added that the two parties were far apart in their understanding of some essential points of the resolution, but he agreed with el Khouri that their acceptance was unconditional and that the cease-fire should go into effect as soon as possible. The British delegate suggested that the existing differences, of which immigration was the most important, should be conciliated by Count Bernadotte in Palestine, rather than by the Security Council at Lake Success.He proposed that the U.N. mediator should decide how to define the terms “fighting personnel,” and prepare control regulations for checking compliance with the Council provision.
Eban’s statement that Israel would not compromise on its independence and that it must be considered a sovereign state, equal to any of the Arab countries, drew an immediate response from Jamal el Husseini of the Arab Higher Committee. “It is my duty to say that the Arabs cannot enter into political discussions on the basis of a Jewish state in Palestine,” he declared.
Although Dr. Alfonso Lopez of Columbia and Warren R. Austin of the U.S. felt that the cease-fire should not be delayed for more than three days, they supported the decision authorizing Bernadotte to set the “effective date” for cessation of hostilities.
Charles Malik of Lebanon informed the Council that all the Arab governments had banned any communication between their Jewish nationals and “the Zionists on May 15.” So long as Jews living in Arab countries avoid communications with Palestine, he said, they will be “physically safe.”
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