The United States today made it clear to the Arabs at the United Nations Security Council that it stands firmly behind its request that Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold undertake a quick and urgent peace mission to the Middle East to prevent the present tension from developing into an Arab-Israel war.
In the face of continued obstructionist tactics by Arab delegations here, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., head of the American delegation, told the Security Council that there is no basis for the Arab suspicion that the U.S. resolution sending Mr. Hammarskjold on the Middle East mission might have some “hidden meaning.” The text of the resolution spoke for itself, he stated.
There was no hidden meaning in the United States proposal, Mr. Lodge assured the Council. One could search “till doomsday with a magnifying glass,” he declared, without finding any such hidden meaning. The resolution’s only purpose, he said, was to prevent war, which it was hardly necessary for him to remind the Council was the primary purpose of the United Nations. It was not proposed, he stated, that the Security Council review the issues involved in the Palestine question. What the U.S. wanted was 1. That the Security Council act promptly and 2. To indicate, with the Security Council’s endorsement, certain steps that the Secretary General and the parties should take to carry out the armistice agreements. Unless these agreements were effectively carried out, said Mr. Lodge, a grave threat to the peace would result.
The Arab “Suspicions” to which Mr. Lodge referred found expression in speeches delivered today at the Security Council by Omar Loufti and Ahmed Shukairy, representatives of Egypt and Syria, respectively. Both asked for “clarification” of the operative part of the U.S. resolution, especially on the nature of the “further action” contemplated by the Council after Mr. Hammarskjold completes his mission and submits his report.
Mr. Lodge assured both Dr. Loufti and Mr. Shukairy that he would be ready to give detailed answers to their questions at the next meeting of the Council, which will be held next Tuesday, when Mr. Lodge takes over the presidency. Sir Pierson Dixon, British representative, supported Mr. Lodge, who was also supported at today’s meeting by Cuba, Belgium and China.
Arthur C. Liveran, acting deputy delegate for Israel, who was given the floor, expressed only Israel’s regret that the head of the delegation, Abba Eban, was “unavoidably absent,” and reserved the right for Mr. Eban to speak at the next meeting.
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