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LAKE SUCCESS, June 5 (AP)-An Israeli spokesman said today any effort to limit Jewish immigration would be a serious blow to the proposed Palestine cease-fire.
The new Israeli statement stressed once more the delicate nature of the cease-fire negotiations and indicated the immigration issue might wreck the entire project.
Count Folke Bernadotte, United Nations mediator, informed the Security Council last night the immigration question alone was obstructing agreement on a true date.
Bernadotte asked the Council for guidance in interpreting the cease-fire resolution of May 29. Faris El Khouri of Syria, Council President for June, replied the Council had authorized the mediator to make his own interpretations of the resolution.
INTERPRETATION
(In Cairo Bernadotte said he had worked out an interpretation of the Security Council truce proposal, but did not know whether it would be acceptable to the Arabs and Jews, according to United Press.
(The Swedish count conferred for an hour and a half with Premier Mahmoud Nokrashi Pasha. Afterwards he flew to Bireut to confer with Lebanese leaders.
(Bernadotte said he drafted an interpretation of the resolution calling for a four-week truce in Palestine. He declined to say what it was.
(Asked whether he thought it would be acceptable to warring factions in Palestine, he replied-
“I can’t tell.”)
The Israel spokesman expressed surprise that Bernadotte had asked for interpretation of the immigration clauses.
“The language and the intent of the resolution are clear,” the statement said. “The original British proposal for a ban on men of military age was rejected by the Security Council and the resolution as adopted expressly permits men of military age to enter Israel freely provided they are not mobilized or trained during the four weeks period (of the armistice.)
‘CRUCIAL ISSUE’
“Israel has accepted this. If the Arabs do not accept it they are rejecting the resolution and must bear all the consequences. This is a crucial issue.”
It was disclosed meanwhile that El Khouri conferred this forenoon with top U. N. officials on communications delays between here and Bernadotte’s Cairo headquarters. El Khouri was understood to have been somewhat annoyed when he learned the mediator still had received no official word last night on a Council decision taken Thursday afternoon.
There was a slight flurry at U. N. headquarters over Herbert Bayard Swope’s letter to the New York Times suggesting that El Khouri should step down as President of the Security Council because of his special interest in the Palestine controversy as an Arab leader.
The only public notice of the Swope letter, however, came from the Israeli spokesman who said he was “astonished” that El Khouri had not voluntarily surrendered the chair.