This corner is edited by: Ziyadeh Awwad

Among the most important events that marked the month of March just past was Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza area and the Gulf of Aqaba, after long give-and-take in the General Assembly of the United Nations. In connection with this withdrawal, Lebanese diplomacy played a great role, whose hero was Dr. Charles Malik, Lebanon's Minister of Foreign Affairs, who put forward the proposal to impose sanctions upon Israel; the bloc of Asian-African states adopted it, and by it the United Nations succeeded in asserting its authority, while the Arabs were able to wrest the initiative from Israel, which was struck to the quick.

In the wake of this withdrawal came the Syrian government's announcement permitting the repair of the oil pipelines passing across its territory, and Egypt's statement permitting the body of international experts in matters of navigation to work on removing the obstacles that stood in the way of resuming navigation in the Suez Canal.

And so only a few days passed before oil was flowing to Banias in Syria and to Tripoli in Lebanon, and light-tonnage ships began to pass through the Suez Canal, in preparation for restoring navigation on a wider scale.

Up to this point it appeared to observers that the problem existing in the Middle East had begun to

move along the road to solution, giving promise of preparing a better atmosphere of stability and reassurance. But before long the problem of restoring the Egyptian administration to the Gaza Strip came to the fore: Israel rose up threatening to resume the fighting, and demanding that the General Assembly of the United Nations reconsider its position toward the Egyptian government. The United Nations and the United States of America, however, did not respond to Israel's claims and its threats; they declared that the resolutions adopted by the Security Council and the General Assembly had never presupposed that the Egyptian administration would not return to Gaza. This was a new victory for Arab diplomacy; and Israel fell silent at that point — even if it was not convinced by what had happened.

There came to Egypt first Dr. Ralph Bunche, assistant to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, followed by Mr. Hammarskjöld; the two conferred with the Egyptian authorities and with the general command of the international emergency forces. Israel supposed that the talks of the two United Nations men would impose upon Egypt and the Arab states certain concessions in its favor; but its hopes were soon dashed, for the Cairo talks dealt only with the questions of navigation in Suez and with agreement on a new plan for what would serve as the decisive

solution of the problems standing between East and West. Israel was thunderstruck when a spokesman for the United Nations announced that no statement would be issued following the Secretary-General's talks in progress in Cairo.

In the flood of these successive events, and while the atmosphere was being prepared for the Bermuda conference between the American and British chiefs and their aides, Dr. Malik, Lebanon's Foreign Minister, arrived in Beirut, coming from his journey to Egypt, Europe, and America, and then to the United Nations, where he had headed the Lebanese delegation. He handed President Chamoun a personal message from President Eisenhower paying tribute to the efforts of President Chamoun and the present government of Lebanon toward spreading harmony and sta-bility throughout the Arab lands. Dr. Malik then held a historic press conference in which he declared Lebanon's point of view on the pressing international questions, and its positive attitude toward President Eisenhower's plan for the Middle East.

Mr. Richards, the American President's special envoy, was meanwhile discussing the Eisenhower Doctrine with the Lebanese authorities; and before long he announced, in a joint statement with the American government, the agreement of the American and Lebanese points of view on everything concerning the present situation and its need