U.N. Sentiment Grows for Shift of Mideast Question from Assembly to Council

The United Nations General Assembly, now in the final week of general debate, may not turn to debate of the Middle East question next Monday, as scheduled, it was indicated today.

Most of the 77 speakers who have already been heard in the general debate have aired their positions on the Middle East situation and advanced their views on the procedures necessary for resolution of the Arab-Israel dispute. Most of the remaining 36 national representatives still to speak in the general debate are also expected to cover the Middle East situation in their expositions. Under the circumstances, there is increasing question here whether anything can be gained by having the entire Middle East debate repeated, as scheduled, “as a matter of priority.”

Increasingly, there is sentiment that continued debate and recrimination in the 122-member General Assembly will not create conditions under which solutions might be found and that the cause of peace might better be served by shifting the entire Middle East question back to the 15-member Security Council. Discussions on this proposal were continuing today without, however, any decision being reached.

Israel announced today its pledge of the equivalent of $218,000 in Israeli pounds to the United Nation’s Development Program. Uzi Nedivi, the Israeli representative, told the pledging conference that “owing to adverse economic circumstances related to our acute needs to balance expenditures for developmental purposes against dangerous inflationary tendencies, Israel is not in a position to announce an increase in her contribution to the U.N. Development Program.”