LONDON: A few hours before the United Nations Security Council was told it must send an international armed force to keep order in Palestine and enforce partition, Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of Arab League, said “regular” Arab armies would resist any international force sent to supervise partition.

Speaking in Cairo he said draft plans to “meet all eventualities in the Palestine civil war” would be submitted to the Arab League Council today [Feb 17]. The United Palestine Commission in its report published last night said the Security Council must send an international force to Palestine “because of the extreme gravity of the situation in Palestine now, and anticipated worsening of conditions there”.

… “Powerful Arab interests” inside and outside Palestine were “engaged in a deliberate effort to alter by force the General Asse­mbly settlement” the Commission declared, adding that it could not do its work unless some such force was provided. … The report added that certain elements of the Jewish community continued “to commit irresponsible acts of violence”. — News agencies

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2023