Ahmed Shukairy, the discredited former Saudi Arabian representative to the United Nations who was fired from his post by King Saud last year, will show up at the UN General Assembly again this year, leading a so-called “Palestine Arab Delegation, ” according to a decision reached by the political committee of the Arab League. The committee, meeting in Cairo, has given Shukairy carte blanche to organize his own “delegation, ” dispatches from Cairo reported here today.
In a statement in Cairo, after he had been selected by the committee, Shukairy said that the “Palestine Arabs” have decided “to take direct action to liberate Palestine. ” The League’s political committee authorized him to start organizing a “Palestine entity, ” sort of a government-in-exile, to fight for the ousting of the Israelis from Palestine. However, both Jordan and Saudi Arabia opposed that move, fearing that such a set-up would jeopardize Jordanian rule. About half of Jordan’s population consists of Arabs who claim to be refugees from Israeli Palestine.
During the last two sessions of the General Assembly, a group calling itself the “Palestine Arab Delegation” has appeared at the United Nations. Members of the group have been permitted to address the Assembly’s committee dealing with the Arab refugee problem, but were recognized only as individuals.
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