Security Council calls for restraint

Press, 21 July 1988, Page 8

Security Council calls for restraint

NZPA-Reuter New York Security Council members have appealed to Iran and Iraq to exercise restraint in their continuing conflict in order to help the SecretaryGeneral, Javier Perez de Cuellar, bring about a ceasefire. The Brazilian Ambassador, Paulo NogueiraBatista, the current Council president, issued the appeal in a written, statement.

Mr Perez de Cuellar’s efforts to set a ceasefire date appeared to have taken precedence over the airliner incident, but the Council was expected to adopt a resolution on the Iran Air incident today.

Diplomats said this was likely to express the Council’s distress over the

downing of the airliner and loss of all 290 on board. They said the United States had threatened to veto stronger lan-

guage, including a resolution that would have deplored the American action rather than condemning it, which is what Iran wanted at the outset.

Last week, the International Civil Aviation Organisation deeply deplored the Airbus incident and decided to investigate the circumstances. The United States said it was an accident resulting from misidentification of the airliner as a hostile fighter. Further military exchanges between Iran and Iraq, which continued after the Iranians accepted the Security Council’s ceasefire resolution, dampened optimism in United Nations circles about the prospects for a quick settlement in the eight-year war.