THE STATUS OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY DEBATE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00826A002400200001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 4, 2008
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: July 21, 1967
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 2008/06/04: CIA-RDP79T00826A002400200001-7
21 July 1967
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT . The Status of the UN General Assembly
Debate
1. After two interruptions this week to give
the Soviets more time to try to develop agreement
on the text of a substantive resolution, the Gen-
eral Assembly is meeting again at 1500 today.
Agreement on something more than a procedural res-
olution is possible but still unlikely. The US
hopes that the special assembly will end today or,
at the latest, tomorrow,
2. The Soviets, having asked for the special
assembly session, are very reluctant--for reasons
of face and their Arab interests--to have it ter-
minate without adopting a major substantive res-
olution. Additionally, they may be worried that
further conflict will occur unless Israel with-
draws r
that the
situation in a Suez Canal area was o great con-
cern and that if the Israelis tried to cross the
canal the Soviets would be directly involved. He
said that the USSR was consequently eager to get
effective UN action. He allegedly said that what
is needed is a new and much larger UN Emergency
Force, possibly of 17,000 men.
3. To gain a resolution incorporating with-
drawal, the Soviets have become increasingly willing
to make concessions to the Western position--although
some of the alleged "compromises" they have offered
have been totally unacceptable to the US. On the
other hand, they will not back a compromise resolu-
tion in open debate unless they can carry the key
State Dept. review
completed.
Approved For Release 2008/06/04: CIA-RDP79T00826A002400200001-7
 Approved For Release 2008/06/04: CIA-RDP79T00826A002400200001-7
0 0
Arab states with them, and Algeria and Syria in par-
ticular have declined to compromise. The stumbling
block has been Arab refusal to accept termination of
a state of belligerency as one element of a settle-
ment.
4. On 19 July Ambassador Goldberg and Soviet
Foreign Minister Gromyko were able to work out two
possible texts to get around the belligerency problem.
They provide for the withdrawal of Israeli forces,
acknowledgement of the right of all states in the
area to maintain an independent national existence
and to live in peace and security, and "renunciation
of all claims and acts inconsistent therewith"--i.e.,
belligerency. They request the Security Council to
continue examining the situation with a sense of
urgency, working directly with the parties and
utilizing a UN presence, to achieve a solution of
all aspects of the problem, including the refugee
question and freedom of transit through international
waterways.
5. If the Soviets could obtain Arab agreement
to such a resolution, it would probably be tabled
today. If, as seems more probable, they cannot, the
only likely assembly action would be on a procedural
resolution sponsored by Austria, Finland, and Sweden.
The exact text of this is still being negotiated,
but it will probably recommend that the Security
Council urgently resume its consideration of the
problem, ask the secretary general to forward the
records of the assembly to the Security Council, and
state that the assembly would reconvene as and when
necessary.
E. DREXEL GODFREY, JR.
Director of Current Intelligence
Approved For Release 2008/06/04: CIA-RDP79T00826A002400200001-7
 Approved For Release 2008/06/04: CIA-RDP79T00826AO02400200001-7
4e
Approved For Release 2008/06/04: CIA-RDP79T00826AO02400200001-7