149. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the Secretary of State in Washington and the Israeli Ambassador (Eban) in New York, February 25, 1957, 5:34 p.m.1
TELEPHONE CALL TO AMB EBAN IN NEW YORK
The Sec said he had a disheartening talk with Hammarskjold whom he called re their talk and it seemed to revolve about the adm of Gaza and E’s insistence on more than a de facto acquiescence. E said that is not our position. Our interest is in a de facto exclusion of Egypt and interested in the formulation the Sec used—it was difficult to imagine Egypt formally consenting to abrogate and could envisage their agreeing to acquiesce. The Sec was not sure he meant agreeing but was thinking in terms of acquiescence. E was interested in eliciting from the SG if he meant exclusive jurisdiction of the UN and got a [Page 274] contrary impression that everything was subordinate to Egypt there in the civilian sense and maybe military and got an impression of the status quo. He mentioned an interim period—in any case no Egyptian jurisdiction while working it out with no prejudice to their rights, claims etc. On the basis of what E heard today he would have had to report the Egyptians would be coming back. That is the one point which is most crucial for us. He did not say he envisaged a de facto adm so long as we do not claim formal abrogation of rights. E mentioned clarifying this and the Sec indicated he would see what he could do about it.
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, General Telephone Conversations. Transcribed by Bernau.↩