§ 2.44 p.m.
§ LORD ROWLEYMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government to what extent progress has been made by Mr. Gunnar Jarring, the United Nations mediator, in his efforts to bring Israel and her Arab neighbours to a Peace Conference in Cyprus.]
§ LORD CHALFONTMy Lords, the United Nations Secretary-General reported to the Security Council on March 29 on Mr. Jarring's Mission. A copy of the report is in the Library of the House. I think my noble friend will agree that it would not be for me to go further than the Secretary-General has done in commenting on Mr. Jarring's progress.
§ LORD ROWLEYMy Lords, while Mr. Jarring continues to do his best to bring both sides to the conference table, is it not urgently necessary that United Nations observers be deployed in the Israeli-Jordan sector? Would not my noble friend agree that the stationing of United Nations observers in the Suez Canal sector and the Israeli-Syrian sector has been most effective in maintaining peace since the cease-fire took place?
§ LORD CHALFONTMy Lords, I agree with my noble friend that the United Nations observer forces have been most useful in this respect. I agree with him, too, that Mr. Jarring is dealing with problems that have eluded solution for twenty years, and none of us, I think, expected him to achieve success overnight. So far as the stationing of an observer force on the Israeli/Jordan cease-fire line is concerned, I answered 470 a Question by my noble friend on that matter on March 25 last. There is nothing much that I can add to what I said then, except that Her Majesty's Government would support any proposal of this kind if it were practicable. But I know that my noble friend will agree that in the absence of agreement from both sides it would not be practicable; and that agreement is not yet forthcoming.
§ LORD ROWLEYMy Lords, may we take it that our representative on the Security Council is ready to make the proposal at the Security Council?
§ LORD CHALFONTMy Lords, as my noble friend will know, the question of when proposals are made depends a good deal on the estimate that my noble friend in New York makes of whether such proposals are practicable. But he certainly has all these factors in his mind.