The U.N. Security Council is expected to meet next week to consider Dr. Bunche’s recommendation that the truce in Palestine be lifted. At a press conference today members of the Secretariat refused to comment on the implications that Dr. Bunche’s recommendation would mean the lifting of the arms embargo in the Middle East and open the area to an armaments race.
The Egyptian Ambassador to the United States, meanwhile, took exception to the warning voiced by the Israeli representative at the United Nations against the automatic lifting of the Middle East arms embargo. In a statement to the press, he estimated that Egypt will spend about $125,000,000 for military needs during the coming year. The military allocations recently approved by the Egyptian parliament are intended for “purely basic defensive purposes,” he declared.
A report reaching the United Nations headquarters here today from Lausanne, where Arab-Israeli peace talks are in progress, says that the Arabs have agreed to accept Israel’s offer to admit those refugees who seek to be reunited with their families in Israel. A mixed Israeli-Arab committee will screen the applicants for repatriation. The number expected to return under this accord are estimated at 25,000. Beyond this limited agreement the major issue still remains deadlocked.
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