Prime Minister Saeb Salaam of Lebanon today joined other heads of Arab delegations to the United Nations General Assembly in their attacks against Israel, while President Nasser of the United Arab Republic returned tonight to Cairo after a ten-day visit to the UN without coming to Washington or touring other American cities.
The Lebanese Prime Minister, addressing the UN Assembly, said that the partitioning of Palestine by the United Nations, in 1947, into Jewish and Arab states was an “injustice against the expressed wishes of the majority of the Palestinian people.” He also accused the United Nations of failing to do “justice” to the Arab refugees. Without a “just solution” of the Palestine refugee problem, he said, “there can be no hope for a permanent peace and stability in the Middle East.”
Complaining against Jewish immigration to Israel, the Lebanese Premier said that the Arab refugees are witnessing “with anguish and alarm Zionist immigrants recruited from the corners of the earth, occupying their homes, and cultivating their ancestral fields.”
“Let me make it unmistakably clear,” he declared, “that the Arab countries distinguish between Judaism and Zionism. For the former, we have deep reverence and respect. But the latter we consider not only an enemy of the Arab peoples but a constant threat to regional stability and as a danger to world peace.”
KING OF JORDAN SAYS ONLY U. N. CAN SOLVE ARAB-ISRAEL PROBLEM
Speaking at the Overseas Press Club here today, King Hussein of Jordan dealt with Arab-Israel issues and said that the only possibility to solve them was up to the United Nations. “The United Nations should bring about a just solution of the Palestine question,” he emphasized.
“If we approach the Palestine question in any attitude other than the correction of injustices,” he asserted, “we would only add to the difficulties. The solution of those problems is not the responsibility of Jordan or any other Arab country. There is Jordan, there is Israel, there is the United Nations–and the United Nations must bring about just solutions.”
At one point, in response to a question as to whether he would be willing to meet with Israel’s Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to discuss a possible peace treaty, he replied: “A Just solution of the Palestine question must come first. United Nations resolutions are there and they must be carried out.”
Asked about the possible contribution of the United States to a solution of the Arab refugee problem, he said “The United States should use its influence at the United Nations to bring about a just solution.”
Asked whether Jordan was ready to reverse its policy of refusing to admit American citizens of the Jewish faith, he said: “There is no such problem at all.” He said he did not expect to meet with any other United States officials, having met Secretary of State Herter, and will return home by way of London soon.
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.
