Israel delegate Abba Eban made public today a copy of a letter he addressed yesterday to Henri Hoppenot of France, last month’s president of the Security Council, requesting a meeting of the Council at an early date to take up once more Israel’s oft-debated grievance against Egypt’s blockade of the Suez Canal.
In his brief letter, Mr. Eban pointed out that the last few meetings of the Council were devoted to the Bat Galim issue and were postponed pending receipt of a complete report on the confiscation of the Israel vessel from Gen. E. L. M. Burns, United Nations truce chief in Palestine. That report was circulated to the Council members yesterday. Now that the Burns document is here, with its “clear and definite conclusions,” Israel wants the matter disposed of.
Mr. Eban’s addressing of the letter yesterday to M. Hoppenot was understood to be a method to force the hand of Lebanon’s Dr. Charles Malik, who assumed the presidency of the Security Council today. Dr. Malik, one of the spokesmen for the Arab League, would presumably have preferred not calling a meeting of the Council in December.
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