Ambassador Gunnar Jarring, who will be the Secretary-General’s special representative in the Middle East, conferred here today with U Thant and his aides preparatory to his early departure for the Middle East. The Swedish diplomat will meet Israeli and Arab representatives for discussions here prior to his departure and has scheduled a meeting for tomorrow with Ambassador Gideon Rafael of Israel.
Mr. Jarring was also organizing a small staff recruited from United Nations secretariat personnel to accompany him. He is expected to make his headquarters in Government House, Jerusalem, headquarters for Lt. Gen. Odd Bull, chief of the cease-fire observer force.
UN officials were unable to state whether Mr. Jarring would visit Syria on his mission since Syria refused to accept the Security Council resolution authorizing the dispatch of a special U.N. representative to the Middle East. The resolution was also rejected by the so-called Palestine Liberation Organization headed by Ahmed Shukairy which warned the Security Council that no solution of the Palestine question was possible without the “official approval” of the Palestine people.
Gen. Bull informed Israeli authorities that the Egyptian authorities had agreed to the increase in the number of United Nations observers along the Suez Canal. He told Defense Minister Moshe Dayan that the Egyptians had also agreed to permit direct wireless communication between the U.N. observers on both sides of the canal. Egypt previously had refused to permit direct communications and the observers could communicate with observers across the canal only by relaying messages through Jerusalem. Israel previously had agreed to both measures.
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.
