IO Files: US(P)/A/24
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Henry S. Villard of the Advisory Staff of the United States Delegation to the General Assembly
| Participants: | Amir Faisal, Chief of Saudi Arabian Delegation |
| Henry S. Villard, U.S. Delegation |
In conversation today with members of the Saudi Arabian Delegation, I was told by Amir Faisal that his Delegation was strongly opposed to accepting any part of the Bernadotte Report. Amir Faisal said that he would fight against the report to the end, in which he would be fully supported by the other Arab states.
The Saudi Arabians consider the report to be a “prejudiced one” favoring the Provisional Government of Israel. I asked Amir Faisal if he considered Count Bernadotte to have been a prejudiced person. Faisal replied that while he did not know Bernadotte personally, he regarded the UN solution for Palestine as altogether prejudiced and that the present proposal would never be acquiesed in by the Arab nations.
While personally friendly, Amir Faisal spoke with bitterness about the Palestine problem. He said that as long as the State of Israel existed the Palestine problem would never be solved. He attempted to draw a parallel between the illegal government of “Free Greece” under General Markos, and the Provisional Government of Israel, and charged the United States with inconsistency in opposing the former while supporting the latter.
The Saudi Arabian Delegation made it clear that as far as they and the other Arab Delegations were concerned, the Bernadotte Report would not be accepted and could only be “imposed upon” them.