UNITED STATES DELEGATION TO THE SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
November 14, 1952 (Typed November 15, 1952)
MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION
SUBJECT: Secretary Acheson's Conversations with Foreign Ministers of the NEA Area Attending the Seventh General Assembly of the United Nations
PARTICIPANTS: H.E. Dr. Zafer Rifai, Foreign Minister of Syria H.E. Dr. Farid Zeineddine, Ambassador, Syrian Delegation Mr. Rafik Asha, Minister, Syrian Delegation
The Secretary Assistant Secretary Byroade, NEA Mr. Edwin A. Plitt, U.S. Delegation
After expressing appreciation of the opportunity afforded him to see the Secretary again and discuss a few matters of interest to both countries, to which the Secretary made an appropriate reply, Minister Rifai almost at once began to stress the need for a solution of the problem of the Arab refugees. The conversation was conducted principally in French.
Minister Rifai began by saying that Syria had begun the settlement of some of the Arab refugees from Palestine on strips of land near Damascus. This, however, is only a make-shift as it does not meet the uprooted Arab's ever present desire to return to the place he and his family for many generations have known as their home and to which they had become deeply and inseparably attached. They think only of their return and no amount of compensation can ever make them forget their attachment to their place of birth. "No longer will you find any nomads as you did when you visited Syria," he interpolated, addressing Mr. Byroade.
Given that such return is no longer feasible, Minister Rifai continued, the problem of compensation and resettlement must be solved. This requires a united effort in which the U.S. and
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especially the UN can help. He then launched into the Bonn Government reparation agreement with Israel which he criticized as lending only another disappointment to the many the Arab states had already experienced. The Secretary and Mr. Byroade explained that the agreement referred to could, instead of being contrary to Arab interests, be expected actively to work in their favor because of enhancing the capacity of Israel to pay and thereby more effectively compensating the Arabs.
The Foreign Minister did not agree with this point of view. He went into some detail of how Israel has become the disturbing element in the Middle East and that peace and tranquility cannot be regained in that area until the Refugee problem has been solved. Reverting to the Bonn agreement, Minister Rifai thought that one possibility which might conceivably lead to a solution would be to enlist the help of the UN more effectively. He explained that Israel's agreement with Bonn would merely remain a bilateral accord from which benefits would accrue only to Israel. When Mr. Byroade mentioned that the Germans felt they had a moral obligation toward the Jewish victims of Hitler and the agreement under reference would help to meet this obligation, Minister Rifai said that such an explanation would never find acceptance as an argument by the Arabs.
Minister Rifai then expanded on his suggestion to make use of the UN. He said that the PCC could be authorized to accept the German reparations and allocate them for the use of the refugees. He maintained that only a sub- ordinate committee of the PCC operating under a UN mandate could even enter Palestine to make an effective evaluation survey of individual refugee claims as the Israelis would never permit the entry of i.e. a Syrian survey team and certainly would not accept the compensation evaluation of refugee assets as determined by an Arab committee, whereas a committee established under the PCC might have some hope of success.
At this point he launched into even more intricate details of his PCC plan until Mr. Byroade suggested that he and Minister Rifai have a meeting on this subject by themselves, which was agreed upon for Saturday at 2:00 P.M. at the Hotel Delmonico.
EAPlitt:get Basic List