Editorial Note
The reply of the Arab League, transmitted by the Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs in a telegram of June 1 to Secretary-General Lie, accepted the Security Council’s request for a four-week cease-fire. The reply asserted that one of the most important of the Mediator’s functions [Page 1086] was to reach a peaceful and just solution of the Palestine problem. It then stated that “The Governments of the Arab States are confident that the United Nations Mediator and the members of the Truce Commission … will realize that any solution which does not ensure political unity for Palestine or respect the will of the majority of the population of that country will not have the least chance of success.” The full text of the reply is printed in SC, 3rd yr., No. 78, page 4.
The President of the Security Council, on June 2, announced to the Council that acceptance of the cease-fire was unconditional and that the comments made by all parties were not to be considered as setting conditions (ibid., page 16).
Sir Alec Kirkbride, British Minister in Transjordan, gave Wells Stabler an account of the meeting of the Political Committee of the Arab League at Amman concerning Arab acceptance of the cease-fire, as furnished to him by the Transjordanian Prime Minister, Tawfik al-Huda. According to this account, Egypt and Transjordan pressed for acceptance and were soon joined by Iraq. Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon were more difficult to convince because of their concern for local public opinion, but they finally voted for acceptance. After adoption of the resolution, the Syrian, Lebanese, and Saudi Arabian delegates proposed an additional resolution stating that all Arab states rejected a Jewish state and that anybody entertaining contrary ideas was a traitor to the Arab cause. The Transjordanian Prime Minister told the three delegates that this matter was entirely outside the scope of the meeting and that the proposed resolution was a direct attack on the Hashemites. He thereupon closed the meeting and walked out (telegram 237, June 3, 1 p. m., from Beirut, 501.BB Palestine/6–348).