DETERMINATION OF ISRAEL

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28231, 20 March 1957, Page 13

DETERMINATION OF ISRAEL

Egypt’s Plans For Gaza Opposed

Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 19. Mr Hammarskjold, the United Nations Secretary-General, was to leave for Egypt tonight in a new bid to damp down the explosive situation in the Gaza Strip.

Mrs Golda Meir, the Israeli Foreign has given a warning that her Government could not “agree with a belligerent Egypt coming back to Gaza.

The situation which had developed there had better be reversible, she told correspondents after a two-hour conference with Mr Hammarskjold in his skyscraper office late last night. She did not say what the consequences would be. But diplomatic sources recalled that on March 1 when she announced to the Genera! Assembly the withdrawal of Israeli troops, she said: “If conditions are created in the Gaza Strip which indicate a return to ■ the conditions of deterioration which existed previously, Israel would reserve its freedom to act to defend its rights.”

Mrs Meir was understood to have pressed Mr Hammarskjold to ask President Nasser whether Egypt still claimed belligerent rights against Israel.

Israel repeatedly made a similar request of the Secretary-Gen-eral during the talks in the United Nations, which preceded the final break reached in Washington at the end of February.

He replied then that he could not relay the request so long as Israeli troops remained on Egyptian soil.

There was no word today whether Mr Hammarskjold would now act on the Israeli request. Mr Abba Eban, the Israeli Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the United States, was continuing talks in Washington today with State Department officials. He indicated that these would be in line with the joint United States-Israel statement after yesterday’s Washington conference that a common readiness was expressed for continued consultation.

Mrs Meir did not say what her plans were for the day, other than it would be physically impossible for her to see Mr Hammarskjold. She is expected to leave for Jerusalem tomorrow. After two postponements, this was taken to mean that Mr Hammarskjold would finally leave for Egypt.

United Nations officials confirmed that he was booked on a Sabena flight. Two personal assistants, Mr George Ivan Smith fan Australian) and Mr Shiv Shastri (an Indian), and two personal bodyguards, would go with him. The party will go to Abu Suweir for talks with Dr. Ralph Bunche, the United Nations Under-Secre-tary in Charge of UNEF Affairs, and Major-General E. L. M. Burns, commander, and to Ismailia to confer with Lieutenant-General Raymond Wheeler, chief of the Suez Canal team. Western sources expressed little optimism today about the chances of success z for Mr Hammarskjold’s mission. There was some disappointment with the joint statement issued by, Mr Dulles, the United States Secretary of State, and Mrs Meir yesterday. The ’phrase that the United States “stood firmly by the hopes and expectations it had expressed” was cited particularly as being weak and meaningless.