Israel may withdraw surprise U.N. motion

Press, 8 December 1976, Page 8

Israel may withdraw surprise U.N. motion

International

NZPA-Reuter New ork Israel is likely to withdraw its I nited Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the reconvening of the (ieneva conference on peace in the Middle East, according to diplomatic sources in New York.

This, they say, is because of the introduction of amendments adding the Palestine Liberation Organisation to the list of participants in any resumed negotiations. Israel refuses to have any dealings with the P.L.0., on the ground that it seeks the destruction of the Jewish State, and the Israeli text, believed to be the first it has initiated in the Assembly since joining the United Nations in 1949, names only Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Syria. These are the parties which were originally invited to the Geneva negotiations and which met in December, 1973, under co-chairmanship of the United States and the Soviet Union. Since the amendments ' — sponsored by India, Malta, Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Yugoslavia — are sure of adoption,

the sources say that Israel will probably withdraw its draft before the voting begins, probably today. Duriijg the Assembly’s debate the Middle East’ a group of 19, mainly nonaligned. countries introduced two additional resolutions aimed at the speedv convening of the Geneva conference with full P.L.O. participation. The Israelis’ draft resolution contained a single operative paragraph, calling on Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Syria to reconvene without delay at Geneva under the co-chairmanship of the United States and the Soviet Union, which countries it urged to resume the negotiations, without prior conditions, for “the establishment of a just and durable peace in the Middle East.” In Moscow, the Libyan leader. Colonel Gadaffi has declared that the Arabs will 'not lay down their arms “un-

til the Israeli racists are driven from occupied Palestine."

In a hard-hitting speech at an official banquet after talks with Soviet Union leaders. Colonel Gadaffi denounced the United States for “working against the Arabs in the Middle East”: he said that American policy was leading the world to a cataclysm. The Libyan leader, who had arrived in Moscow earlier in the day on his first visit to the Soviet Union, had met the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Partv (Mr Brezhnev), the Prime Minister (Mr L. Kosygin) and President Podgomy. Colonel Gadaffi. who has often expressed support for Palestinian groups aiming at the complete annihilation of Israel, said that his country would “never forget the aid the Soviet Union gave in its struggle against imperialism, Zionism, and reaction."