EMERGENCY U.N. SESSION

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28660, 9 August 1958, Page 13

EMERGENCY U.N. SESSION

General Assembly To Debate Middle East (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 8. The „ l ? ,kcd Nations General Assembly was called in emergency session today to debate the Middle East situation. Several of the key Foreign Ministers were likely to attend. - tt of Britain, Mr Dulles, of the Lotted States, Mr Sidney Smith, of Canada, and Dr. Mahmoud Fawzi, of the United Arab Republic, all would be in New York for the opening of the subs*tantiye debate, probably next Wednesday, usually reliable sources said. . The presence of the British and United States foreign Ministers could be expected to bring Mr Andrei Gromyko, of the Soviet Union, to New York the informants added. h ® y ,® aid l here was a strong probability of backstage conferences between the ministers under the auspices of the Secretary-General (Mr Hammarskjold). •

Observers added that such man-to-man talks might pave the way for a summit meeting. Canada’s Envoy (Mr Charles Ritchie) foreshadowed this possibility in the Security Council yesterday when he said that during the General Assembly session there would be “opportunities for informal and fruitful, discussion among the’ Powers principally concerned.”

Mr Guillaume Georges-Picot of France, the president of the Security Council, said his Government was convinced that a summit meeting on the Middle East was “consonant with the interest of the world community and no effort should be spared to bring it about.”

Soviet sources said the General Assembly might be a “first step toward the summit.”

Today’s session of the assembly will be principally procedural, according to sources close to the President (Sir Leslie Munro). The assembly will appoint a credentials committee and adopt an agenda, the main item of which will be “questions considered by the Security Council at its 838th meeting on August 7.” These questions are the situations in Lebanon and Jordan, where American and British troops have intervened.

The Soviet delegate (Mr Arkady Sobolev) last night abandoned efforts to have the assembly consider “the immediate withdrawal” of the British and .American troops and gave th’e council a rare unanimous vote by supporting an amended United States resolution.

The council spent more than six hours debating the rival resolutions. Britain and Panama finally brought about a compromise which both sides accepted.