U.N. Seeks to Arrange Direct Talks Between Egypt and Israel

The United Nations has been making “intense” efforts to bring about an end to the conflicts between Israel and the Arab states, and specifically to try to arrange direct talks between Israel and Egypt, Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold said here today. These efforts are continuing, Mr. Hammarskjold said, and he hopes to visit the Middle East himself some time early in 1956 to intervene personally.

“The situation in the Middle East,” he declared at a press conference, “puts a heavy responsibility on our shoulders here and on the shoulders of our people on the scene. We are trying to develop that responsibility by continuing to maintain very close contact with the representatives in the field and the governments concerned, and we are trying to exert every effort to stabilize the situation. So far the results of our intense efforts are such that I would not say that they make me very happy. And I would not say that they have been very encouraging.”

Queried about the visit of Maj. Gen. E.L.M. Burns, UN truce chief in Palestine, to Col. Abdel Gamal Nasser. Egyptian Premier, in Cairo, the UN Secretary General said: “I have to take some responsibility for that visit. We have to be realists. We are meeting with very great psychological difficulties about the possibility of direct negotiations. I favor direct talks between Israel and Egypt. But in such a situation the United Nations is the third party and it is wiser to concentrate at the moment on the efforts of the representatives of the UN to talk separately with each of the other parties.

“It has been my hope all the way through that the earlier we could get into a situation producing direct talks the better. Direct talks would be most fruitful but in this situation as it exists the wisest thing to do is to maintain the contacts between the UN representatives and each of the governments separately.”