The Security Council met briefly this afternoon to hear Secretary General Kurt Waldheim present the Israeli-Syrian disengagement document which spells out the UN’s peace-keeping role and adjourned until tomorrow when it is expected to ratify the document. Ratification by the Security Council will have no effect on the formal signing of the accord by Israel and Syria in Geneva tomorrow. Today’s meeting was called for by U.S. Ambassador John Scali who had earlier presented Waldheim with the document and a letter from Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. Copies of the documents were distributed to Security Council members before the meeting.
Waldheim met with Security Council members this morning to discuss the UN role in implementing the acoord. He released a statement announcing that he has instructed the commander of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) in the Middle East, Gen, Ensio Siilasvuo of Finland, to proceed to Geneva immediately in order to be available when Israel and Syria formally sign the agreement there tomorrow. Waldheim also announced that he would be represented at the signing by his personal representative, Roberto Guyer, Undersecretary General for special political affairs. The director general of the UN office in Geneva, Vittorio W. Guicciardi, has been instructed by Waldheim to make all necessary arrangements for the signing ceremony at the Palais Des Nations tomorrow.
Waldheim himself is expected to leave for the Middle East over the weekend, a UN spokesman said. The spokesman said the Secretary General feels this trip, after a disengagement accord is signed, will give him an opportunity to discuss the UN role with the parties concerned and with UN personnel in the area. His trip does not exclude a personal effort by the Secretary General to further peace progress in the region, the spokesman said.
The UN force to police Israeli-Syrian disengagement will be known officially as the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), It will be manned by non-member states of the Security Council. Its commander has not yet been designated. A UN spokesman said Waldheim intended to use troops from the UNEF and from the United Nations Truce Supervisors Organization (UNTSO) to make up the 1250 man force on the Israeli-Syrian border.
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