Soviet Foreign Minister Dmitri Shepilov, addressing the United Nations General Assembly today, demanded that Israel should immediately withdraw all of its forces from Egyptian territory, not only from the Sinai Peninsula but also from the Gaza Strip and the Islands of Tiran and Sanafir in Akaba Bay.
Mr. Shepilov also demanded that the United Nations Emergency Force should be stationed along the old armistice demarcation lines between Egypt and Israel and should “immediately withdraw from the demarcation line and from Egyptian territory in general as soon as the Egyptian Republic finds it necessary.”
While he directed the same requests to Britain and France, whom he charged with a “colonial” conspiracy, Mr. Shepilov fired his hottest bolts at Israel. “It is perfectly evident,” he said, “that in attacking Egypt Israel was playing the provocative part of initiator of a broadly conceived predatory operation, the-principal parties to which were Britain and France.”
The Soviet Foreign Minister said “As long as the troops of the aggressors remain on Egyptian soil there is no guarantee that the war may not break out again. The Soviet delegation is of the opinion that the General Assembly must again demand most emphatically that the British, French and Israeli troops should be immediately and completely withdrawn from Egypt. That is particularly necessary because the Israeli ruling circles do not want to withdraw their troops, in particular, from the Gaza Strip and have declared that area to be an integral part of their territory.”
Mr. Shepilov warned the Assembly that “the Government of Israel has openly formulated its annexationist plans directed against Egypt which, in particular, envisaged the annexation by Israel of the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and the Islands of Tiran and Sanafir in Akaba Bay.” He said that” the Soviet delegation believes that steps should be taken to exclude the possibility of new provocations by Israel against its neighbors.”
The Soviet Minister requested that the United Nations “demand from Britain, France and Israel that they put an end immediately to all activities that give rise to any threat or tension on the Israeli-Jordan and Israeli-Syrian frontier. “He identified those threats as “concentration of troops along the frontiers and flights of reconnaissance planes. “These, Mr. Shepilov said, “are facts which show that further aggressive plans against the countries of the Arab East are being fostered in certain British French and Israeli quarters. He demanded vehemently that “the United Nations must expose and put an end to such designs.”
HAMMARKJOLD WANTS U. N. FORCES TO BE STATIONED IN GAZA
Just before Mr. Shepilov addressed the Assembly Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold made public a letter he had sent yesterday to Mrs. Golda Meir, Israel’s Foreign Minister asking that UN Emergency Force observers be permitted to enter the Gaza area and to be stationed there.
Mr. Hammarskjold said that information he has received, which he considers reliable, indicates that “the situation in the Gaza Strip and in particularly in Rafah has been one giving rise to great concern.” He told Mrs. Meir: “I am sure that you agree that in the face of the concern felt in the light of previous exams, and the possibilities implicit in the situation, it should be in Israel’s own interests to receive observers, even if quiet would now prevail.”
Mrs. Meir answered this communication by pointing out that she had already explained to the Secretary General that “there is now complete tranquility” in the Rafah area. However, she assured Mr. Hammarskjold that she is asking her government for future information and hopes to have an early reply.
Lat last night Mrs. Meir presented a letter to Mr. Hammarskjold informing him that Israeli forces had withdrawn “for varying distances” along the entire. Egyptian front. Israeli circles said later this was an average of forty kilometers (twenty-four miles). Despite Israel’s withdrawal of part of the forces, the Israeli letter stood fast on the original demand for an explanation of what the United Nations force would do.
The Israel letter reminded Mr. Hammarskjold-that in accepting the ceasefire Israel had specified that withdrawal would depend upon “satisfactory arrangements” with the United Nations about the force, and said that Israel was awaiting information on “the proposed size, location, and stationing arrangements.”
It said that after Israel had obtained further information about the functions of the force it would be ready to make her own observations on a withdrawal. Also it called for an answer to Israel’s inquiry, addressed to Mr. Hammarskjold, as to whether Egypt would be willing to agree to a real peace with Israel.
The strongest demand yet voiced here for a fundamental approach toward peace between Israel and the Arab states came to the General Assembly from T. L. MacDonald, Foreign Minister of New Zealand today.”
Reminding the General Assembly that the United Nations had created Israel, Mr. MacDonald requested that the present session consider the entire Palestine problem from a fresh viewpoint, and reconsider with a view toward a final settlement all the resolutions on this subject adopted since 1947. He told the Assembly that while the Palestine problem has come up repeatedly in the Security Council “the only resolutions which the Security Council has been capable of adopting have been those containing censure of Israel.”
Mr. MacDonald demanded that every aspect of the Israel-Arab problem–economic, political refugees, regional water development–must be examined now and a peace plan must be hammered out.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
