Prime Minister Harold Wilson said in the House of Commons today that conditions in the Middle East had changed greatly since Britain joined with the United States and France in 1950 to sign the Tripartite Declarations guaranteeing existing Arab-Israeli borders.
“The original declaration was signed at a time when the three signatories were virtually–and could regard themselves virtually–as arbitrators of Middle East policy,” the Prime Minister told the House. “This is no longer the position, partly because of intervention by the Soviet Union and other countries, and partly because of certain aspects of the growth of Arab nationalism, going far beyond the maintenance of particular frontiers.”
He added that “certainly if the circumstances become appropriate, there is nothing, I am sure, the whole House would like better than to get some kind of agreement on arms supplies, arms control and the banning of nuclear weapons in that area.”
The Prime Minister presented these views in response to question from Conservative Deputy A. Lempton, and Liberal Party leader Jo Grimond. Mr. Lempton asked the Prime Minister whether Britain was still committed to the Tripartite Pact. The Prime Minister replied that the Declaration of 1950 was “intended to express the policy of the three signatories at that time, and “it has not been retracted.”
He told the House that, in all our contacts with the Middle East countries, we have been emphasizing particularly what is the most vital issue at the moment: The question of the Jordan River water scheme and the need for maximum restraint by all countries concerned” over the Israel tap of the river for its national irrigation project.
Mr. Grimond then asked whether the Prime Minister was “aware that it is just because the situation is now very different from what it was when this agreement was brought about, that we feel it should be renegotiated.” He asked Mr. Wilson whether the 1950 agreement was one “to maintain the frontiers of Israel” and whether, if the pact were invoked in the event of a Middle East crisis, “we might be forced to go to the aid of one or the other side to put back the frontiers, quite irrespective of the rights and wrongs of the initial controversy which led to the violation of that frontier.” In response, the Prime Minister cutlined the changes in conditions in the area since the 1950 signing.
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