Vernon Walters, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, said today that the 40th session of the UN General Assembly “was not an unsatisfactory session” although he acknowledged there was no progress toward a resolution of the conflict in the Middle East.
“The tone was less shrill, less confrontational,” said Walters during a 30-minute news conference here assessing the General Assembly, scheduled to conclude tomorrow. “The general tone was more balanced.”
Walters, a retired Army general who last year succeeded Jeane Kirkpatrick as chief U.S. delegate to the 159-nation world organization, said that among the positive developments at the UN within the past few months was the unanimous approval by the General Assembly of a resolution condemning “as criminal” all acts of terrorism.
ANTI-TERRORIST RESOLUTION WILL HAVE PROFOUND EFFECT
The resolution, adopted last week, “will have a profound effect at discouraging terrorism,” Walters asserted. The resolution condemned “as criminal all acts, methods, and practices of terrorism wherever and by whomever committed, including those which jeopardize friendly relations among states and their security.”
Walters also told reporters that the U.S. position on the Mideast remains that “the best chances of success will be achieved by direct negotiations between the parties in question, that is, the Arab neighbors of Israel and Israel, with sort of broad support from the outside. We do not necessarily believe that a vast conference including dozens of people, would necessarily help to advance the cause of peace in that area.”
ARABS, RUSSIANS SEEK INTERNATIONAL PEACE PARLEY
The General Assembly last week held a two-day debate on the Middle East situation during which there were calls from Arab delegates and the Soviet Union for a convening of an international peace conference. Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Binyamin Netanyahu, presented to the General Assembly Israel’s opposition to the conference.
Netanyahu said that if the General Assembly was serious about the Mideast, it would adopt a resolution calling for an end to the use in the region of warfare forbidden by international law — an apparent reference to the alleged use of chemical weaponry in the Iraq-Iran war — and for effective dialogue among all countries of the region on the basis of mutual recognition and respect for sovereignty.
The General Assembly, meanwhile, yesterday adopted a series of strongly anti-Israel resolutions. They included a call to all member-states to cease all dealings with Israel, a condemnation of Israel’s dealings with the apartheid government of South Africa, and a resolution deploring the transfer by some nations of their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
ISRAEL ACCUSED OF ‘WAR CRIMES’
Furthermore, the Assembly adopted 25 resolutions and two decisions on the recommendation of its Special Political Committee, including an omnibus resolution on Israeli practices in the occupied territories declaring those practices to be “grave breaches” of the 1949 Geneva Convention, and “war crimes and an affront to humanity.”
Nearly all the resolutions attacking Israel found the Jewish State, joined at times by the U.S., as casting the sole opposing vote. There were various numbers of abstentions during the adoption of the resolutions.
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