Prime Ministers of four Middle East countries have invited United Nations Secretary-General U Thant to visit the Middle East, ostensibly in connection with budgetary problems of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, a World-Telegram and Sun correspondent reported today from Bairut, Lebanon.
The correspondent reported that, if the Secretary-General is persuaded to visit the Middle East, hope has been expressed by “observers” in Beirut that he might succeed in breaking the deadlock in the Middle East crisis. The invitations from the Prime Ministers were extended on a “personal visit” basis, the correspondent reported, to avoid the “acrimonious debate that would surely erupt” if Mr. Thant asked for an official mandate from the Security Council or the General Assembly.
The correspondent quoted “diplomatic sources” in Beirut as asserting that the UN official should spend at least two days in the capitals of each of the four “host” countries in which UNRWA conducts its activities for Palestinian Arab refugees–Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Egyptian-administered Gaza Strip.
(No mention was made in the dispatch of a possible visit by Mr. Thant to Israel. But it was pointed out at the United Nations that, if the Secretary-General were to go to the Middle East, he could not avoid including Israel in his itinerary.)
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