An effort will be made this week by Lt. Gen. Odd Bull, chief of staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, to break the stalemate in the U. N.’s efforts to resume discussions by the Israeli-Syrian Mixed Armistice Commission regarding cultivation rights in the demilitarized zones on the Israeli-Syrian frontiers.
The Commission, which had held three sessions between January 25 and February 10, after being summoned by United Nations Secretary-General U Thant, found its last scheduled meeting, on February 10, adjourned indefinitely when Syria failed to assure Gen. Bull that it would stick to the set agenda. Gen. Bull, who visited Damascus last week to try to persuade Syria to resume the talks with Israel, was scheduled today to meet with officials of the Israeli Foreign Ministry to discuss what had been called “new suggestions” he had brought back, following a conference on the issue he had held at Beirut last week with Mr. Thant. They met at the Beirut airport, where Mr. Thant had stopped off while on his way to Burma.
Gen. Bull conferred at UNTSO headquarters today with his political advisers, in an effort to work out a viable method for returning both Israel and Syria to the conference table. The next ISMAC session, if it is held, is to be convened on Israel’s side of the B’not Yaacov bridge. Political circles here, however, doubted today whether Gen. Bull would succeed in bringing both Syria and Israel back for another session of the Mixed Armistice Commission.
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