Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg warned the United Nations General Assembly today that a settlement of the “tragic and dangerous” Middle East situation could not be attained unless there were present on both sides, “an affirmative will to resolve the issues, not through the dictation of terms by either side, but through a process of mutual accommodation in which nobody’s vital interests are injured.”
The envoy, who outlined an eight-point set of principles to govern a settlement of the Arab-Israel conflict, told the Assembly that “both sides must have the will to work out a political solution, both must be committed to the peace, and no appropriate method, such as good offices or mediation, should be excluded. The purposes of peace cannot be served if the right of a member state to its national life is not accepted and respected by its neighbors, nor if military success blinds a member state to the fact that its neighbors have rights and interests of their own. In realism, it is perhaps not to be expected that reconciliation and magnanimity will appear overnight, but surely enmity must at least give way to tolerance and to the will to live together in peace.”
SETS OUT EIGHT BASIC CONDITIONS FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE
Mr. Goldberg outlined the basic conditions for peace in the Middle East as follows:
a, Each nation in the area must accept the right of others to live. The least that this requires is that all should renounce any state or claim of belligerency, which as long ago as 1951 was found by the Security Council to be inconsistent with peace.
b. Troops must be withdrawn–and withdrawn in a context of peace, for some parties cannot be left free to assert the rights of war while others are called upon to abide by the rules of peace.
c. There must be justice for the refugees. The nations of the area must address themselves at last, with new energy and new determination to succeed, to the plight of those who have been rendered homeless, or displaced, by wars and conflicts of the past, both distant and recent.
d. Free and innocent passage through international waterways must be assured for all nations. One of the lessons of the recent conflict is that maritime rights must be respected.
e. The wasteful and destructive arms race in the region must be curbed, thereby making more resources available for economic development.
f. The status of Jerusalem must not be decided unilaterally but in consultation with all concerned and in recognition of the historic interest of the three great religions in the holy places.
g. The political independence and territorial integrity of all states in the area must be respected.
h. Boundaries must be accepted and other arrangements made, superseding temporary and often violated armistice lines, so as to afford security to all parties against terror, destruction and war.
These, Ambassador Goldberg said, were the “important general principles on which, we believe, rest the peace of the area. While the main responsibility lies with the parties, the United Nations and every member state, including my own country, must help in the search for peace. For it is in the highest international interest of the parties, that peace should be achieved as soon as possible.”
BRAZIL, DENMARK WARN AGAINST CONTINUED BELLIGERENCE
Foreign Minister Jose de Magalhaes Pinto of Brazil, who opened the general debate, also stressed the urgency of a solution in the Middle East and pointed out that “what must be avoided is the continuance of a state of belligerence between members of this organization, punctuated by military clashes and bringing substantial damage to the economies both of Israel and of the Arab countries as well as constant threats to world peace.”
Prime Minister Jens Otto Krag of Denmark deplored the fact that there had been “no substantial progress towards solution of the underlying political problems” in the Middle East. The parties to the conflict, he said, “must themselves contribute to a solution.” He declared that “territorial gains should not be based upon military action; all member states have a fundamental right to peaceful existence and the Security Council is the U.N. organ which carries the main responsibility for the preparation and implementation of a comprehensive solution to the outstanding problem.”
When the General Assembly’s general committee met today to approve the agenda and assignment of items to the Assembly’s committees, Ambassador Nikolai Fedorenko of the Soviet Union used the occasion to unleash a new blast at Israel, as did the representatives of Syria, Libya and Sudan. Prof. Fedorenko asserted that the question of the liquidation of Israeli aggression against the Arab states was one of the most important before the General Assembly. The aggression must be ended, he said. Restoration of the lawful rights of the Arab peoples and of peace in the area was a matter of concern to all.
Foreign Minister Corneliu Manescu of Rumania, President of the Assembly, ruled that as there were no objections, the item, “the situation in the Middle East,” would be inscribed as a matter of high priority.
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.
