United Nations Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar said today that Israel’s air raid on Palestine Liberation Organization targets in Tunisia “cannot be accepted.” The air attack was also condemned by the President of the General Assembly, Jaime de Pinies of Spain.
In a statement issued through his spokesman, de Cuellar said he is “gravely concerned” over the attack because “such acts of reprisal in the current situation with the resulting casualties and the violation of the territorial integrity of a member-state cannot be accepted. They serve to perpetuate the cycle of violence and further hamper the search for peaceful solutions.”
De Cuellar’s spokesman observed, after reading the statement, that the Secretary General had also condemned the murder of three Israelis by PLO terrorists aboard a yacht in Larnaca, Cyprus last week. De Pinies said “there is no excuse” for one country attacking another.
The Foreign Minister of Tunisia, Beji Gaid Essebsi, met with the Secretary General today for a discussion of the Israeli attack. Tunis did not immediately request a meeting of the Security Council on the issue. But diplomats here said this cannot be ruled out. A decision to convene the Security Council might be announced tonight.
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