Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed H. el-Zayyat called on the United Nations today to end Israeli “aggression” and “establish peace by the force of law”–including, if necessary, expulsion of Israel from the world organization. Opening the General Assembly’s Middle East debate on the 25th anniversary of the Palestine partition, the former UN ambassador said the Security Council had the authority and “a special responsibility to restore the just peace we want and need and to uphold the basic tenets of the Charter in our area.”
Israel’s attempt to create “new facts” in the captured territories must be “declared illegal,” military aid to Israel must be barred “as long as it illegally occupies our lands,” and there must be “a just and equitable settlement for the Palestinian nation,” the Cairo diplomat proposed. “Should the United Nations fail to act now,” he asserted, “it will lose all credibility as a guarantor of peace and security, and would play into the hands of the few who wish to see it politically maimed.”
Zayyat stressed that failure of the UN in this regard would leave Egypt “aware of our sacred duty to restore our legitimate rights by every possible means, no matter how long is the struggle or how heavy the sacrifices.” He cited Article 51 of the Charter, which he said “clearly recognizes the inherent right of the victims of aggression to defend themselves and to restore their territorial integrity.”
ACTIONS AGAINST ISRAEL PRESENTED
He said the Security Council had the power to implement Articles 41 and 42 of the Charter, Article 41 permits such measures–without “the use of armed force”–as “complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.” Article 42 allows the Council to go beyond Article 41 if it proves “inadequate” and to “take such action by air, sea or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security.” This “may include demonstrations, blockade and other operations by air, sea or land forces of members of the United Nations.”
Furthermore, Zayyat declared, the UN “should warn Israel now and most seriously that unless it shows more willingness to carry out its obligations under the Charter, necessary action in accordance with the Articles 5 and 6 of the Charter would be considered.” Article 5 permits suspension of a member State “from the exercise of the rights and privileges of membership by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.” Article 6 permits expulsion from the UN for a member “which has persistently violated the principles contained in the present Charter.”
Israel has “usurped and occupied” Arab lands and is using them “as bases for the attacks of the Israeli jets and tanks and guns against the population in Syria and Lebanon,” Zayyat charged. The Israelis, he alleged, “simply intend to keep as much of the territories they conquered until now as they possibly can” and seek to “create at the end, the Greater Israel which is the Zionists’ dream.” Zayyat made only one reference to terrorism. He said Israel’s “policy of deliberate depopulation (of the administered territories) relies heavily on psychological terrorism.”
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