Soviet demands at U.N.

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33033, 28 September 1972, Page 17

Soviet demands at U.N.

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright)

NEW YORK, Sept. 27.

The Soviet Union Foreign Minister (Mr Andrei Gromyko) formally proposed a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, under the terms of which all memberStates would renounce the use of force in international relations, and would permanently prohibit the use of nuclear weapons.

He proposed that the Security Council should make the terms of the resolution mandatory as soon as possible.

“By adopting the Soviet Union resolution, the United

Nations would lend strong support to the cause of further international detente, and to the cause of strengthening peace and increasing mutual understanding in relations between States,” Mr Gromyko said. Mr Gromyko did not mention the American proposal for United Nations action against international terrorism, or the assembly’s proposed debate on the issue—which the Soviet Union had earlier moved to delay in the General Assembly Legal Committee. He said that the Soviet Union stood firm in her support for the demands of the Palestinian Arabs, but he added: “At the same time, it is certainly impossible to condone the acts of terrorism committed by certain elements from among the participants in the Palestinian movement which have led, notably, to the recent tragic events in Munich. “These criminal actions deal a blow to the national interests and aspirations of the Palestinians, and these acts are used by the Israeli criminals to cover up their bandit-like policy against the Arab peoples. , “We declare, once again, to all the States of the region: Israeli troops must be withdrawn from all the Arab territories occupied in 1967.” Mr Gromyko also demanded that the United States accept the Vietnam peace settlements proposed by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong, stop the bombing of North Vietnam, and withdraw immediately. “Probably never before have so many declarations been made, promising to go out of Vietnam and to stop the war, as have been made of late,” he said. “And never before has there been so striking a contrast between words and deeds. . . . Behind them all is, in fact, an unprecedented expansion of the acts of war, and of their cruelty and inhumanity. “One can only wonder why the one and only correct conclusion has still not been drawn, namely, that the North Vietnamese people cannot be defeated. Their staunchness will not be broken .by heavier bombing, or by the blockade of their ports, or by damage to their hydro-technical installations.”