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The UN and Disimperialism in the Middle East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

J. C. Hurewitz
Affiliation:
Professor of Government, Columbia University
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Extract

In the first dozen years of the UN's existence Middle East disputes came before the Security Council and appeared on the agenda of the General Assembly with greater frequency than did disputes in any other region of the world. Thereafter the Middle East did not always occupy the center of the UN's peacekeeping stage. Yet as recent developments in the Arab-Israeli area and in Cyprus and Yemen disclose, the Middle East remains a region of deep restiveness that continues to threaten world peace and security. Every regular session of the General Assembly, except the first session in 1946, has considered Middle East items. Two special sessions dealt with the Palestine problem, and two emergency sessions handled the Suez and Lebanese crises. The Security Council has turned to the Palestine problem or its lineal descendant, the Arab-Israeli dispute, at approximately every sixth meeting.

Type
III. The United Nations and Its Members
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1965

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References

1 The Middle East, as defined herein, stretches from Morocco to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

2 Hovet, Thomas Jr, Bloc Politics in the United Nations (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1960), pp. 5664 and Tables 13–18 on pp. 134–139CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 General Assembly Resolution 120 (II), October 31, 1947.

4 Treaty of Peace with Italy, February 10, 1947, Article 23 and Annex XI; and General Assembly Resolution 289 A (IV), November 21, 1949.

5 These commissions included: the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), the United Nations Palestine Commission, the Security Council Truce Commission for Palestine, the United Nations Special Municipal Commissioner for Jerusalem, the United Nations Mediator (and Acting Mediator) in Palestine, the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees (UNRPR), the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP), the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), the United Nations Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

6 General Assembly Official Records (1st special session), Vol. 3, pp. 8081, 132, 149–150Google Scholar.

7 Security Council Official Records (3rd year), 314th meeting, 06 7, 1948, p. 3Google Scholar; 317th meeting, June 10, 1948, p. 44; and 320th meeting, June 15, 1948, pp. 6–8, 11–13; and General Assembly Official Records…First Committee (3rd session, part II), Annexes, p. 75.

8 Security Council Official Records (1st year), 22nd meeting, 02 16, 1946, pp. 332333Google Scholar.

9 General Assembly Resolution 611 (VII), December 17, 1952; and General Assembly Official Records (7th session), p. 381Google Scholar.

10 General Assembly Resolution 612 (VII), December 19, 1952; and General Assembly Official Records… First Committee (7th session), pp. 291292Google Scholar. See also General Assembly Resolutions 812 (IX) and 813 (IX) of December 17, 1954; and General Assembly Official Records… First Committee (9th session), pp. 534535, 571–572Google Scholar.

11 For the Assembly's action on the Algerian question at its eleventh, twelfth, fifteenth, and sixteenth sessions see, respectively, General Assembly Resolutions 1012 (XI), February 15, 1957; 1184 (XII), December 10, 1957; 1573 (XV), December 15, 1960; and 1724 (XVI), December 20, 1961.

12 See, for example, General Assembly Resolutions 814 (IX), December 17, 1954; and 1287 (XIII), December 5, 1958.

13 General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV), December 14, 1960.

14 UN Document 8/5330, June 11, 1963.

15 General Assembly Official Records … Special Political Committee (18th session), p. 257, 275Google Scholar.

16 General Assembly Official Records … Special Political Committee (18th session), pp. 271, 276, 286Google Scholar; and General Assembly Resolutions 1990 (XVIII) and 1991 (XVIII), December 17, 1963.