U.S. Told Not to Be Guided by Oil Interests in Its Middle East Policy

Joseph E. Johnson, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, warned here today “that those who see our policy toward the Arab states solely in terms of the commercial interests of the American oil companies oversimplify dangerously and do a disservice” to the United States.

At the same time, Mr. Johnson charged that the U.S. has not yet “defined clearly our policy goals” in the Middle East. He asserted that the U.S. cannot refer the issue to the United Nations “to avoid the responsibility for formulating a national policy.” He spoke at a symposium on “America and the Middle East,” held as part of the American Jewish Committee’s five-day 50th Anniversary Observance at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

Regarding American policy toward Israel, Mr. Johnson urged that it be developed in terms of United States interests in promoting peace and order in the Middle East. “Americans and American policy-makers should think of, and act toward, Israel as an independent country whose independence in a peaceful and orderly Middle East is in our national interest and should be upheld under the Charter of the United Nations,” he said.

At the same time, he stressed that it “must be effectively brought home to Arab leaders and to the Arab populations that the United States will not allow the independence of Israel to be snuffed out.” He pointed out that this position is “not based upon a particular fondness for Israel, but on our national interest, our responsibility to ourselves and our obligation under the UN Charter.”

PROF. JESSUP URGES U.S. -INDIA JOINT ACTION IN U. N. AND MIDDLE EAST

At the same session, Philip C. Jessup, Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at Columbia University and former U.S. Representative to the UN, urged the United States to join with India in seeking a settlement of the Middle East crisis.

He said that the two countries should sponsor jointly a resolution in the General Assembly which would set up three United Nations Commissions: 1. Frontier delimitation Commission; 2. Financial Commission of Refugees; 3. Technical Commission on River Development. Prof. Jessup proposed that the UN General Assembly adopt a comprehensive plan based on the Commission reports and “call on all members to support the settlement and deny support to any state which opposes it.”

Throughout this process, Dr. Jessup declared, the UN Forces should patrol the Armistice lines on both sides of the border. In case of a breach of the peace, he added, the Security Council should be asked for assistance. The basis for the joint U.S. -India resolution has seven precepts outlined by Mr Jessup:

1. Recognition by the Arab states that Israel exists and will continue to exist.

2. Recognition by Israel that it cannot expand at the expense of its neighbors.

3. Present armistice lines must be adjusted and permanent frontiers established.

4. The Arab refugees must be compensated by restoration or indemnity.

5. The Jordan and other water resources to be developed under UN auspices for mutual advantage on an engineering and equitable, rather than political basis.

6. The Holy Places to be placed under UN guarantees assuring access to all.

7. Guarantees of free passage through the Suez Canal access to the Gulf of Akaba, right of transit across the Negev and arrangements for free ports.

Mordecai R. Kidron, Israel Minister Plenipotentiary, discussed Israel’s role in the Middle East. On the economic development in the Middle East, John S. Badeau, president of the Near East Foundation, said that progress must be “focused on the problem of raising the living standards of the masses of common people.” The Near East Foundation is an American organization dealing with basic social and economic problems of Near East rural populations.