UN Middle East Debate Begins Wednesday Egypt Expected to Call for Sanctions Against Israel; Eban Wil

Delegations were preparing today for the annual Middle East debate amid reliable reports that Egypt will launch it Wednesday morning by asking the General Assembly to go on record as favoring sanctions against Israel. Such a resolution would have the status of a recommendation to the Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions. The Assembly has, over the years, often recommended that the international community refrain from dealing with various governments, but has never endorsed sanctions against Israel outright.

Israel, it is understood, will seek to derail any such resolution, no doubt remembering that the Afro-Asian-Yugoslavian measure last year–staunchly anti-Israel but short of sanctions–has considerably dampened peace efforts. But Israel–knowing full well that the Soviet-Arab bloc has a nearly automatic majority in the Assembly with the support of sympathetic governments–will probably ignore a new Assembly resolution as it has ignored those in the past that have been critical of its policies.

The Egyptian proposal, to be presented by Foreign Minister Mohamed H. el-Zayyat, is expected to be based on the resolutions passed by African states in June in Rabat, Morocco, and by nonaligned states in Sept. In Georgetown, Guyana, Both called in effect for sanctions against Israel.

U.S., ISRAEL, IN CLOSE TOUCH

The Mideast debate, which Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban will definitely not attend, is expected to last about a week. It is believed that Ambassador Yosef Tekoah may wish to speak Wednesday too, as soon as possible after Dr. Zayyat. Dr. Gunnar V. Jarring, the Secretary General’s nearly forgotten Mideast representative, arrived in New York, informed the parties of his presence, and will no doubt follow the debate carefully as in the past, though he will not participate in it.

Some informed sources here, meanwhile, said Egypt cannot count on a majority and thus will probably not propose sanctions. These sources said that the United States would automatically vote against a draft resolution favoring sanctions against Israel because it would not be “even-handed,”

Tekoah met with Secretary General Waldheim today at the latter’s invitation, bolstering the belief that the Secretariat chief is keeping close tabs on the progress of the debate. It was understood that various issues of interest to Israel–like Soviet Jewry–were discussed in addition to Mideast matters.