Security Council Meeting On Cyprus

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30368, 18 February 1964, Page 13

Security Council Meeting On Cyprus

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, February 17. lhe United Nations Security Council will meet today at the request of both Britain and Cyprus to consider the deepening crisis over the Mediterranean island Republic. The Cypriot Foreign Minister, Mr Spyros Kyprianou, who arrived in New York to address the council, announced that Cyprus would ask for Security Council guarantees of the island’s territorial integrity against possible partition or annexation.

Today the council will take up the Cyprus problem for the first time since December 27, when President Makarios’s government laid charges of “aggression” against Turkey. It then took no decision.

According to an unconfirmed report, Cyprus may seek Security Council support for the abrogation of the treaties of guarantee concluded with Britain, Greece.

and Turkey when the island attained independence in 1960. Mr Kyprianou said last night that any security force for Cyprus must be under the . control of the United Nations. He made it clear that a peace-keeping force made up of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members would not be acceptable. Mr Kyprianou said that although Turkish naval forces had returned to their ports after manoeuvres in the Mediterranean, the ships were

still there and available for an attack on Cyprus. He accused Turkey of aggression and cited statements made by Turkey, alleged threats and violation of Cyprus air space. Mr Kyprianou said he had brought proposals for a solution. but declined to reveal them. Changed British Attitude British officials at the United Nations declined to specify what had persuaded Britain, with United States concurrence, to submit the issue to the Security Council after the West had striven to keep it out of the United Nations because of fears of Russian interference. Diplomatic sources would not go beyond the statement of Sir Patrick Dean, Britain’s chief delegate, that the council meeting was requested because of the ‘‘inability of the Government of Cyprus to agree” to measures suggested by Britain, Greece, and Turkey for the maintenance of peace, and because of the deteriorating situation in the island. Russian Charge Britain’s request for a Se-

curity Council discussion on Cyprus was “only a diplomatic manoeuvre after the failure of all efforts of the Western Powers to dictate

conditions to the Government of Cyprus,” “Pravda” said in Moscow today. The article said that the referring of the dispute to the United Nations meant the “final flop of the efforts by the N.A.T.O. countries” to get Cyprus Government approval for a N.A.T.O. peace force on the island. Sir Patrick Dean, who conferred yesterday with . U I Thant, the United Nations 'Secretary-General declined 'to tell reporters what position Britain would take.

U Thant’s View U Thant said he did not expect a resolution to be submitted for a while because further consultations were necessary among the interested parties. If there were agreement on an international peace-keeping force linked to the United Nations, he did not foresee any financial problem because there was an understanding that the contributors of contingents would foot the bill. United Nations peace-keep-ing operations in the Congo and the Middle East have brought the organisation to the brink of bankruptcy because of the failure of many countries to pay their share of the costs. “Very Critical Problem” The United States Undersecretary of State, Mr George Ball, returned to New York last night after his whirlwind round of talks , in Nicosia, Ankara, Athens, and London. He told reporters “a very critical problem” existed in Cyprus. “We must tackle first things first and the first order of business is to restore law and order to that

unfortunate land. “The world must not be deflected from this purpose. The bloodshed must be stopped,” he said.