Mission from Moscow

UNITED NATIONS

Crew-cut and impassive, Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin strode into the United Nations' glass house in Manhattan last week for the opening of the special session of the General Assembly. He listened with obvious satisfaction as the delegates quickly adopted the agenda--discussion of peace in the Middle East--and adjourned for the weekend, to commence serious debate this week. As the highest-ranking Russian visitor to the U.N. since Khrushchev's blucher-banging sortie in 1960, Kosygin was a man with a mission. Having failed to bail out their Arab client-states on the battlefields, the Soviets sought to use diplomacy to deny the Israelis the heady wine of victory.

One measure of Moscow's desperation was the procedure that the Soviets used for summoning the General Assembly into emergency session. The procedure was first devised by the U.S. in 1950 in order to obtain U.N. authority to repel Communist aggression in Korea. At that time, the Russians damned as illegal what they themselves employed last week.

The Vote Was 16-2. In coming to the U.S., Kosygin assured the Kremlin maximum amplification for its diplomatic offensive. His presence also elevated the level of representation in the Assembly's blue and gold auditorium. The roster of scheduled participants included U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, French Foreign Minister Couve de Mur-ville, British Foreign Secretary George Brown, Israel's Foreign Minister Abba Eban, Denmark's Prime Minister Jens Otto Krag, plus a flock of Communist Eastern European Premiers and Asian and Arab foreign ministers.

Kosygin was ready to argue that the Assembly ought to brand Israel an aggressor, and insist that it "disgorge the fruits of its aggression"--meaning withdraw from the Arab territories it now occupies--before any peace talks could begin. The two are very different propositions. On the purely technical matter of aggression, Israel scarcely bothers to deny any longer that it started shooting first. On the day before the guns opened up, the Israeli Cabinet met secretly to discuss whether to launch a "preemptive" attack before the gathering Arab armies struck. Abba Eban argued for further diplomatic efforts. Defense Minister Moshe Dayan insisted that the safety of the nation would not permit delay. Dayan carried the day. The attack was authorized by a vote of 16-2, the only nays being cast by the left-wing socialists.

"Come and Talk Peace." Any Russo-Arab attempt to make capital of that will not likely make much headway among the rest of the delegates. The Arabs, after all, have for 19 years insisted that they were in a "state of war" with Israel, and were clearly massing for their own first strike from the Sinai when the war began. The Russians will probably find more support in the argument that Israel's victorious armies should pull back to their own frontiers.

The Israelis, with the backing of the U.S., have no intention of pulling back prior to any settlement of their two-decade-old conflict with the Arab world that surrounds them. As Israel sees it, the only road to stability in the Middle East lies in direct, bilateral negotiations with each of the vanquished Arab nations--Egypt, Jordan, Syria--forcing them to recognize Israel's existence. One of Kosygin's aims in flying to New York is undoubtedly to spare the Arabs the ignominy of such face-to-face acceptance of Israel. The Israelis presume that they have earned that right. Their army now stands astride Arab lands equal to three times the size of Israel. Some of the territory Israel intends to keep at all costs. But other parts are eminently negotiable and are in effect being held hostage in return for Arab recognition of Israel's right to exist. Withdrawal in advance is out of the question--no matter what the U.N. may recommend. "We are going to sit right where we are," says Eban. "We are going to say to the Arabs, 'If you want to change our position, come and talk peace.' "

Deft Gallic Evasion. Against that adamant stand Russia can command the instant support of the satellite and Arab nations, plus India and Yugoslavia, which are still loyal to Nasser's chimerical association of "nonaligned" nations. To drum up additional support, Kosygin, en route to New York from Moscow last week, touched down in Paris for dinner with Charles de Gaulle. He tried to persuade the general to swallow a hard anti-Israeli line, hoping to solicit not only France's vote in the U.N. Assembly but perhaps also those of the French-speaking African nations. De Gaulle did not commit himself. After all, he has done splendidly by cozying up to both sides, and he now fancies himself in the role of mediator between them. Right up to the outbreak of the war, France pumped large quantities of arms and ammunition to Israel --and without them the Israelis could not have blitzed so fast. But De Gaulle escaped Arab ire by embargoing arms as soon as the shooting started, and last week he declared that no Israeli conquest can be "considered as permanent"--a deft Gallic evasion of the issue of withdrawal before or after a settlement.

Even if the Assembly passes a pullback resolution, it cannot force the Israelis to comply. But the war of words now being waged on Manhattan's East River will at least serve the purpose of letting all sides air their views. Perhaps it will even help to clear the troubled Middle Eastern air after Israel's unexpectedly overwhelming victory.

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