Maj. Gen. E.L.M. Burns, chief of the United Nations truce supervision organization in Palestine, who was scheduled to leave Jerusalem today for New York in connection with the forthcoming meeting of the UN Security Council on the Arab-Israel issue, has delayed his departure indefinitely because there is still no date set for the meeting of the Council here and there is no certainty as to whether the meeting will be convened this month. It is believed that the Western Powers, led by the United States, prefer to have the meeting next month.
The Council meeting is considered of utmost importance because it would deal with the recommendations presented by Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold following his recent “peace mission to Israel and the Arab countries. The meeting is also important because it will be the first gathering of the Security Council since the declaration by the Soviet Government expressing readiness to cooperate in an attempt to reduce Arab-Israel tension. Added importance was given the meeting yesterday by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles when he said that the Soviet Union’s stand would be tested by a resolution the Western Powers will introduce in the Security Council. He declined to reveal the nature of the resolution.
Gen. Burns’ postponement of his flight to New York was also explained by the fact that he has so far not succeeded in bringing Israel and Egypt together on an agreement regarding three very important measures which Mr. Hammarskjold had left him for implementation. These measures are: withdrawal of Israel-Arab forces from the demarcation lines; a new system giving full freedom of movement to UN observers along the truce lines, and establishment of local arrangements for prevention of incidents and prompt detection of violations of armistice agreements. It is hoped that with additional time, Gen. Burns may succeed in obtaining Israel-Egyptian agreement on at least some of these points.
Meanwhile, Joseph Tekoa, chief of Israel’s Foreign Ministry armistice affairs department, and his Egyptian counterpart, Col. Salah Gohar, have arrived here to be on hand when the Security Council is convened to deal with the Hamnarskjold recommendations. Dr. Joza Brilej of Yugoslavia, this month’s president of the Security Council, is known to have been pressing for three weeks for a Council meeting to take up Mr. Hammarskjold’s report. But it seems that the Western Powers are, for some reason, in no hurry to have the meeting take place this month.
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