UNITED NATIONS: Despite warnings by Pakistan and 34 other countries not to prevent a decision in the Security Council, Britain, France and the United States last night [Oct 19] vetoed a resolution that would have imposed a mandatory arms embargo against South Africa in order to obtain independence for Namibia. The three countries that blocked the Council action objected on the ground that it could upset the diplomatic efforts by US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to induce South Africa to accept a conference on independence for Namibia, formerly South West Africa. Speaking before the vote, the 15-nation Council President Mr Iqbal Akhund, as the representative of Pakistan, said: “Failure by the Council to act will affect its own authority and prestige, it cannot prevent the ineluctable course of history.”

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Cairo,] Syrian President Hafez Assad was quoted … as saying that he expected “some difficulties” in implementing … [the] Riyadh Summit agreement on Lebanon. “This is natural and must not disturb us, I have told (Lebanese) President Elias Sarkis. We are ready to place Syrian forces at his disposal,” Assad was quoted as saying in an interview with Cairo’s mass circulation daily “Al-Akhbar”.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2026