UNITED NATIONS: China … reiterated the charges against the Soviet Union that it supported India in dismembering Pakistan by armed force. Vice Foreign Minister Chiao Kua-hua in a wide-ranging statement at the UN General Assembly, said what the Soviet Union had done to several countries and the reason there was no tranquillity in the world today “is clear to the broad masses of Czechoslovakia, Egypt and Pakistan. …” About the issue of Bangladesh’s admission to the United Nations, [he] said it could be considered after the full implementation of the General Assembly and Security Council resolutions on the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. — News agencies

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Cairo,] the Shah of Iran today [Oct 3] told the Arabs he personally believed America will be adopting a more even-handed Middle East policy and advised them against trying to use petroleum as a political weapon. “If petroleum becomes more expensive … America, Western Europe and Japan will find it more economic to use substitutes like coal and gas,” the Shah said in an interview with the Cairo daily “Al Gomhouria”. “[B]ut if they use petroleum politically, it is their business. We will not go along.”

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2023