S/PV.1760 Security Council

As a result of consultations held with members of the Council, I understand that there is general agreement that rule 51 of the provisional rules of procedure of the Security Council will not be invoked on this occasion and that the verbatim record of this meeting of the Security Council will be circulated in all the working languages as an unrestricted document in accordance with rule 49. If there is no objection, l shall take it that, that is agreed. 7. Therefore the Security Council, whose essential task is the maintenance of international peace and security, in our view has the heavy responsibility of playing its full part under the Charter. It is by virtue of this constant concern of respect for the role of the Security Council, respect for the responsibility incumbent upon it, that the 10 nonpermanent members of the Council-Australia, Austria, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Panama, Peru, the Sudan and Yugoslavia-have submitted the draft resolution contained in document S/l 1156, the text of which reads: 2. As this meeting is being held in private, it will be necessary to apply rule 55 of the provisiona rules of procedure and to issue a communiqui through the Secretary-General at the close of the meeting. The text of the draft communiqu6 will be circulated to members of the Council in due course. Adoption of the agenda The agenda was adopted. (The speaker read out the text of the draft reSOlutiol~.l Arrangements for the proposed Peace Conference on the Middle East 8. As I have just said, the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council are aware of the difficulty of the problem. They are also aware-and I should like to stress this-of the responsibility of the Council and want that to be very clearly defined. We the IO non-permanent members of the Security Council trust that if in the future-the near future, as we hope-the Secretary-General should receive a letter from the interested parties, which would be transmitted to the President of the Security Council, we could perhaps meet again to make some changes in the text we arc submitting to you. 3. The PRESlDENT (translation from Chinese): The members of the Council have before them the text of a draft resolution sponsored by Australia, Austria, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Panama, Peru, the Sudan and Yugoslavia (S/11156/ which will be introduced by the representative of Guinea. 4. Mrs, Jeanne Martin CISSE (Guinea) (interpretation $ymz French): I shall be very brief for reasons familiar to 10. I shall not go on; I said I would bc brief. The aim of the non-permanent members of the Security Council is not, as some have sought to say, to give a lesson to others on the responsibilities incumbent upon members of the Council. Not at all. Our only concern remains respect for the mandate entrusted to the Security Council. We shall remain faithful to that mandate and we want all of us together to see to it that there is strict respect for the role which the Charter entrusts to the Security Council.

If there are no further speakers at this stage, I shall now put the draft resolution in document S/l 1156 to the vote. A vote was taken by show of hands. In favour: Australia, Austria, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Panama, Peru, Sudan, Yugoslavia. Against: None, Abstaining: France, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America. Tke draft resolution was adopted by 10 votes to none, with 4 abstentions. 1 One member (China) did not participate in the voting.

I shall now call on representatives who wish to explain their votes. 13. Mr, DE GUIRINGAUD (France) (interpretation from French): As the Council has just adopted the draft resolution submitted by 10 delegations concerning the Middle East question, I should like very briefly to explain the reasons why my delegation abstained. 14. The French Government welcomed with satisfaction the announcement that peace negotiations were about to begin. Their purpose is in fact to put an end to the conflict that for 25 years has raged in the Middle East. My Government sincerely hopes that those negotiations will lead in a reasonable period of time to the establishment of an agreement acceptable to the parties directly involved in the conflict and in keeping with the principles of international law embodied in the Charter. 15. Desirous as it is of giving such negotiations every chance, my Government understands and recognizes that we must beware of being excessively formalistic, and to that end must avoid to the utmost public debates at so delicate a time. What it could not accept, on the other hand, is that, on a question in which the responsibility of the United Nations has been involved from the very outset, the Security Council itself should abdicate the exercise of 1 See resolution 344 (1973). 16. If, as we hope, the Geneva Conference achieves positive results, it will be up to the Council to give its approval to the final settlement by accompanying it with such guarantees as it deems fit. It would 10s~ its prestige and authority if it merely confined itself to recording the fact. In the event that the Conference should not meet the hopes we have justly placed in it, the States conc~rncd sooner or later would not fail again to have recaurse to the Council. 17. Lastly, it is not only the Middle East that is at issue, and it is the possibility of settling other international disputes that we must preserve for the future. 18. For all of those reasons the Council, in our view, is duty bound to recall in an appropriate manner, before the inauguration of the Conterence, the link that must necessarily be established between the negotiations and the Council. Similarly, we believe that the Secretary-General should not go to Geneva without a clear and precise mandate. 19. In this respect--and despite its merits-the draft resolution submitted to us does not offer all the guarantees we would have wished to find in it. On the one hand, the terms in which it takes note of the participation of the Secretary-General in the Conference are not sufficiently explicit and do not clearly spell out the Secretary-General’s role. It is, moreover, regrcttablc that the Council should have found itself obliged to meet and to take so important a decision without even knowing under what conditions the Secretary-General would be invited to participate in the Conference. This is a situation that is hardly compatible with the dignity or the ttormal role and prerogatives of the Council. 20. Moreover, the text that has just been adopted rncrcly uses a very vague formula concerning the procedure b\ which the Secretary-General would keep the Council informed. On this point, when WC arc embarking upon what might be a long process, it would have been desirnble, in our view, to stipulate that the Secretary-General would keep the Council regularly and fully infornlcc] of tile development of negotiations so that the Council might tx: in a position to ensure the strict implcmctitation of its relevant resolutions on the Middle East. 21 These requirements, which merely reflected the provisions of the Charter concerning the respective cvnlpetcnccs and roles of the Security Council and of the Sccrctary- General, appear to us to be such as to allow for constructive negotiations and to ensure the proper execution of the agreement , while preserving for the future the responsi. bilities incumbent upon the Council. As there W;~S IIO unanimity on these recluirements my delegation was COIIstrained to abstain and to express its reservations on the text submitted to the Council.

As no other representative wishes to spe’ak at this time, 1 should like to make a brief statement as representative of CHINA. 30. Last October the two super-Powers contrived Security Council resolution 338 (1973) with the aim of putting out the raging flames of the Arab peoples’ war against aggression and reimposing the situation of “no war, no peace” on the Arab people so as to facilitate the two super-Powers’ contention for hegemony in the Middle East and their division of spheres of influence there. We stated our position when the Security Council adopted that resolution. Consequently, the Chinese delegation cannot accept the present draft resolution which is derived from resolution 338 (1973). The Chinese delegation is always firmly opposed to any attempt of the two super-Powers to make behind-the-scenes deals at the expense of the interests of the Arab and Palestinian peoples. 23. As I understand it, the sponsors of resolution 338 (1973) are not opposed to the provisions of the resolution just adopted but they are not in a position today to vote in favour of it. I recognize that the Securjty Council depends to a significant extent on the sponsors of resolution 338 (1973) for the implementation of this resolution. I have preferred to withhold my vote until the two sponsors of resolution 338 (1973) are in a position to i endorse this resolution. That is the sole reason for my abstention today, and I hope that there will soon be an opportunity when there can be a larger favourable vote for the provisions of this resolution.

I apprcciate the efforts that have been made by many members of the Council in this very delicate phase of preparations for an important conference which I am sure all of us hope will at long last provide the way to find a just and enduring peace in the Middle East. I know, and in fact I share, the sense of frustration that many members round the table have expressed in the last few days. 31 According to the Charter, the Security Council has the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. In pursuance of the purposes and principles of the Charter, the Council should, on the Middle East question, support the just demand of the Arab and Palestinian peoples who are the victims of aggression and oppose Israeli aggression and the two super-Powers’ contention for hegemony in the Middle East. Under the provisions of the Charter, the Security Council is composed of 15 Member States. It is obvious that, in fulfilment of its responsibilities, the Security Council can establish its position only by a formal decision taken by itself. Without the consent of the Security Council, HO individuals 01 countries have the right to represent the Council or to undertake obligations or sign documents on important matters in the name of the Security Council. 25 My delegation has abstained in the vote on the resolution this morning because I did not have any authorization to support it. We ourselves have not felt that formal action by the Council was necessary. We would have preferred a consensus approach; but I do not make any great issue of that. 26 The problem of my delegation-and I think it is not a new problem, and to me it is not an unusual or a surprising one, given what I have referred to as the delicacy of the situationis that negotiations regarding invitations to the Geneva Conference are still proceeding, and we have not felt that we could support the resolution at this time. 32. Based on its consistent position, the Chinese delegation has decided to dissociate itself from this resolution. 33. Speaking now as PRESIDENT, I would say that if no other representative wishes to speak I shall assume that the CounciI is ready to consider the text of the draft communiqut? which has been circulated [S/l 1159/. 27 My delegation has already made clear in the informal consultations, and I should like to repeat this morning, that wc envisage that the Secretary-General would preside at the 34. Rule 55 of the provisional rules of procedure provides that “At the close of each private meeting the Security Council . . ,“-- opelling session of the Conference and that his reprcsentative would be there continuously: in other words, that there would be the full involvement of the Sccretary- General, as there should be, in the Peace Conference 35. May I ask the representative of the Soviet Union on what question he wishes to speak now? praceedings, as is outlined in the resolution that has jLiSt been adopted. 1 would stress once again that the Whole basis of the Conference, the framework for the negotiations, is to bc found in the resolutions which have 36 Mr MALIK (Union of Soviet Socialist Kepublics) (translation .from Russian): In exercise of my right of reply already been adopted by the Security Council, SO it seems

I wonder if a reference could also be included to the explanation of vote which I made. It might perhaps follow, as it did chronologically, the reference to the statement made by the representative of France.

We have taken note of the request of the representative of the United Kingdom,

The representative of the United States also made a statement,

Then, in the appropriate paragraph, following the reference to the statement of France, we shall add references to the statements of the United Kingdom and the United States. 43. Perhaps the Under-Secretary-General for Political and Security Council Affairs can read out the full text of the conimuniqu& 44 Mr. SHEVCHENKO (Under-Secretary-General for Political and Security Council Affairs): The draft communiquC now reads as follows: “The Security Council held its 1760th meeting in private on 1.5 December 1973 at the request of many of its members, to discuss the following item: ‘Arrangements for the proposed Peace Conference on the Middle East’. “The Council voted on the draft resolution (S/Il.Z56/ submitted by Australia, Austria, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Panama, Peru, the Sudan and Yugoslavia. The draft resolution was adopted by IO votes in favour to none against with 4 abstentions (France, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America) as resolution 344 (1973). “The representatives of France, the United Kingdom and the United States made statements. “The representative of China did not take pert in the vote and made it clear that China dissociated itself from this resolution.”

If there are no other comments, I shall take it that the text of the

I now call on the representative of the Soviet Union,

I asked the President of the Security Council to allow me to speak in exercise of my right of reply in connexion with the Chinese representative’s regular statement with its routine and customary fantastic inventions about some non-existent deal on the Middle East, supposedly directed against the interests of the Arab peoples. 48. With regard to this matter, I should like to inform the Chinese representative of what is known to the whole world, except, apparently, China and its representative in the Security Council, namely that the Soviet Union has been and still is a true and faithful friend of the Arab peoples-the victims of Israeli aggression-and that the USSR will struggle firmly and consistently for the elimination of the casequences of Israel’s aggression, for a just settlement in the Middle East and for the establishment of a lasting and durable peace in that area. 49. In this connexion, it is also appropriate to inform the Chinese representative of the following universally known international fact. 50. At the recent meeting of the Heads of Arab States in Algiers at the end of November of this year, the participants in that high-level meeting made the following statement: “They are proud to note the whole-hearted political support and military and economic assistance offered by the Soviet Union and other socialist countries to the Arab States in their just struggle for the liberation of the occupied Arab territories and the restoration of the lawful rights of the Arab people of Palestine.” That is the best possible answer to the Chinese representative.

As representative of CHINA, I should like to make a brief reply to Mr. Malik’s statement. 52. As the Chinese proverb puts it, facts speak louder than words. 53. I believe that the members of the Council and all the Members of the United Nations, and the peoples of all the countries in the world, have drawn the proper conclusions from the course of the Israeli-Zionist aggression against the Arab and Palestinian peoples in the Middle East in recent years, and from the actual deeds of the two super-Powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, there.

I entirely agree with the proverb quoted by the Chinese representative that facts HOW TO OBTAIN UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS Unite I Nations publications may be obtained from bookstores and distributors throuk;hout the world. Consult your bookstore or write to: IJnited Nations. Sales Section. New York or Geneva. COMO CONSEGUIR PUBLICACIONES DE LAS NACIONES UNIDAS Las publicaciones de Ins Naciones Unidns estin en venta en lihrerias y casas distribuidoras en todas pa&s de1 mundo. Consulte a su librero o dirfjase a: Naciones Unidas. Secci6n de Ventas, Nueva York o Ginebra. Litho in United Nations, New York Price: $U.S. 1.00 (or equivalent in other currencies) 73-82001-August 1979-2,200