The UN in the Mideast
KOLATCH, MYRON
By Myron Kolatch The UN in the Mideast The Arab -sponsored resolution, passed unanimously by the General Assembly, may allow Western troops to withdraw gracefully, but it won't stop Nasser The...
...The UN resolution can in no way prevent this...
...and Soviet to the Japanese, Norwegian and finally the Arab resolution, the last was the vaguest...
...Some progress may even have been made toward setting up the "Arab development institution" mentioned in the resolution...
...it failed...
...The League did nothing...
...Nor has the UN Truce Supervisory Organization, which is largely a repository for Arab and Israeli complaints against one another, met with greater success...
...shipment of arms parts to Iraq's new strong man, Karim el-Kassem...
...There are reports, too, of a deal in Jordan, whereby pro-Nasser forces will be permitted to return to power if Egypt allows King Hussein to retain his crown...
...Nevertheless, there is no cause for believing that the UN has gone far toward permanently improving what is mildly referred to as the Middle East "situation...
...Nasser cannot help but see himself again in the comfortable position of playing East against West...
...Only a few weeks ago, for example, the UN Security Council postponed the start of its Middle East debate while Lebanon appealed to the Arab League for relief from UAR infiltration...
...The Observer Group in Lebanon was roundly ignored...
...The unanimously-adopted Arab resolution, a high-ranking member of the U.S...
...Careful examination of the Arab resolution, however, reveals that it promises—at most—a restoration of the unstable status quo ante...
...Much has been made in Washington of the USSR's alleged unhappi-ness over its failure to win UN approval for the explicit demand that the U.S...
...Then, Article 8 of the Arab League Pact is invoked...
...They will not rescue Iraq...
...The eight nations that make up the Arab League are the United Arab Republic, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya and the Sudan...
...There is also the unhappy memory of the Secretary General returning from a Middle East tension-easing trip and reporting that the countries there desired peace—a report followed a few weeks later by the tripartite Suez campaign...
...As far as a "UN presence" is concerned, there is slim chance that it can impress anyone...
...Current Western eagerness to mollify the Nasser forces is also evident from the U.S...
...But there is a good case for the proposition that Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko was play-acting...
...Prior to receiving his present mandate, he visited the UN Observer Group in Lebanon, had a long session with Nasser in Cairo, and returned to UN headquarters insisting that the UAR was hardly guilty of all the charges made against it by on-the-spot diplomats and reporters...
...hence the U.S...
...delegation chortled, was "a bitter pill" for the Soviet Union to swallow...
...Even more has been made of the fact that the Arab nations themselves banded together to "solve" what is essentially an Arab-world problem— particularly in the light of reports that the move was the result of tough backroom talk from Jordan, Lebanon and other Arab states to Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser's United Arab Republic...
...As Hammarskjold makes his way from Amman to Cairo to Beirut to Baghdad, and perhaps to Riyadh and Jerusalem, there will doubtless be reports of agreements that augur well for the future...
...Indeed, all signs indicate that Nasser can best further his expansionist aims by quieting down for the present...
...Then Nasser can take his propagandists and infiltrators out of mothballs and train his sights on those Arab states that have not yet yielded...
...It begins by "noting the Charter aim 'that states should 'practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors.'" Since the Charter, and numerous more specific UN resolutions, have been ignored at will in the past by the major sponsoring nations, small comfort can be drawn from this preamble...
...This was apparently a calculated tactic designed to get Nasser out of the frying pan in exchange for a curtailment of his trouble-making...
...They were joined in presenting the resolution by Tunisia and Morocco...
...On the night that the UN delegates were busy congratulating one another, Joseph Alsop commented that President Eisenhower's UN speech and the unanimous resolution "will not save Jordan or Lebanon from the fate that hangs over them...
...The quick recognition his regime received was the first sign that the West's anti-Nasser drive had ground to a standstill...
...And there is no doubt that, in the progression from the U.S...
...Surely, Moscow's foothold in the world's most explosive area has in no way been loosened...
...In recent years, with Nasser riding herd on his neighbors, the League has for all practical purposes become a defunct organization...
...Even in the early days of the League, when its members were joined by the common goal of driving Israel into the sea, it rarely functioned with any degree of effectiveness...
...The main paragraph of the all-Arab resolution requests UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold "to make forthwith such practical arrangements as would adequately help in upholding the purposes and principles of the Charter in relation to Lebanon and Jordan in the present circumstances, and thereby facilitate the early withdrawal of the foreign troops from the two countries.' Translated, this gives him a free hand to establish what is called a "UN presence" in the troubled region, to negotiate whatever other steps he thinks will improve the chances of peace, and to provide a graceful exit for Western troops...
...Secretary of State Dulles may well have realized this when, in a solemn monotone, he said of the UN action: "It does not of itself mean that we can take the future for granted...
...This urges League members to "respect the systems of government established in the other member states and regard them as exclusive concerns of those states," and pledges abstention from "any action calculated to change established systems of government...
...Jordan, Lebanon and the UAR already appear to be heeding his call for a "radio armistice...
...Truck traffic between Syria and Lebanon has been resumed...
...By September 30, when he must submit his first report, Western troops might be on their way home...
...what little power it retains is directed by Cairo...
...Thus, for some time there will be calm...
...This is clear from the very unanimity of the final vote...
...In an Assembly that is governed more and more by language-ties and skin-color than by logic, universal acceptance of a proposal underscores its weakness...
...They have not prevented Saudi Arabia from accepting Egyptian suzerainty—and this seems to be what the Saudi Crown Prince, Feisal, has just done in Cairo...
...The heavy stress placed upon the "renewed assurances" to observe the League Pact can be most charitably described as farcical...
...By Myron Kolatch The UN in the Mideast The Arab -sponsored resolution, passed unanimously by the General Assembly, may allow Western troops to withdraw gracefully, but it won't stop Nasser The desperate Western position in the Middle East was perhaps best illustrated by the sighs of relief that greeted the Arab-sponsored resolution which dramatically closed the United Nations General Assembly's special session...
...Why should a similar third group, whether born of these two or independently created, prove any more effective...
...landing...
...By recalling the League Pact now, the major Arab powers committed themselves to nothing tangible...
...Unfortunately, the Secretary General, perhaps the world's last remaining old-style diplomat, has attempted to solve Middle East problems on many previous occasions without success...
...and Britain immediately withdraw their troops...
...What happens once this game has run its course...
...It has been reliably reported that the UAR was assured that Lebanese President-elect Fouad Chehab (he takes office in three weeks) will look favorably on Cairo's leadership...
...There are no self-enforcing clauses in the resolution itself which insure against the Arabs' again ignoring these lofty ideals...
...They offer no protection against Nasser to Kuwait and the other oil-sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf...
...Other Western delegates beamed with the satisfaction of having escaped almost certain diplomatic disaster: an Assembly majority condemning the Anglo-American landings in Lebanon and Jordan...
Vol. 41 • September 1958 • No. 31
