501.BC/4–1646: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the United States Representative at the United Nations (Stettinius)
urgent
28. Reference your number 78, April 16, setting forth the memorandum of the Secretary General.95
- 1.
- We suggest that both in the Committee of Experts and in the
Security Council our position with respect to this memorandum should
be along the following lines:
The Iranian complaint was properly brought under Article 35, paragraph 1 of the Charter. The Council on April 4 for reasons [Page 432] recited in its resolution of that date deferred the Iranian matter until May 6. There is no provision in the Charter which provides for the withdrawal of complaints or in any way provides for the termination of the Council’s connection with any matter brought before it.
The various articles referred to by the Secretary General deal with the authority of the Council to take action after consideration of cases brought before it. There has been no consideration of the merits of the Iranian case. We and other members of the Council hope that there will be no occasion for consideration of the merits of this matter. The question of what if any action the Council could or should take is not before the Council at this time. By its resolution of April 4 the Council deferred these and all other questions relating to the Iranian case until May 6. The language of the resolution in this respect was that “the Council defer further proceedings on the Iranian appeal until May 6”.
The Council will on that date determine what disposition it will make of the case. Certainly the Council could on that date, if conditions seem to it to warrant it, decide under Article 34 to consider the Iranian matter on its merits. The question now raised by the Soviet and Iranian communications to the Council will automatically come before the Council on May 6.
- 2.
- We agree with what we understand is your view that our representation on the Committee of Experts for the consideration of the Secretary General’s paper should continue unchanged. We think that our representative on the Committee of Experts96 in addition to presenting our views on the Secretary General’s memorandum should make it clear that he does not feel that the Committee of Experts can do more than interchange views on this matter which relates to important substantive interpretations of the Charter which must be made by the Security Council itself.