World Events in a Month

This column is edited by: Ziad Azzam

The General Assembly of the United Nations convened on September 17 in its twelfth session, attended by fifty foreign ministers of the member countries of the United Nations. The first meeting of the session was opened by Prince "Yakon," the representative of Siam and President of the Assembly, who praised the stand of the states that had complied with the resolutions of the United Nations in its previous session, and pointed to Russia's position on Hungary, saying: compliance with the resolutions of the General Assembly is still the one thing that everyone awaits. He alluded also to the questions of Algeria and Cyprus, saying that the new session gives promise of satisfactory solutions to them, and that he hopes for a new step forward toward an agreement on disarmament. The General Assembly then turned to the election of a new president for the current session, to succeed Prince "Yakon." Foremost among the candidates for the presidency were Dr. Charles Malik, Foreign Minister of Lebanon, and Sir Leslie Munro, Foreign Minister of New Zealand. But Minister Malik announced his withdrawal in favor of his New Zealand colleague and cast his vote for him, which moved the foreign ministers and heads of delegations to praise Minister Malik's stand and his devotion to the principles of the United Nations and its high ideals.

As for the questions with which the General Assembly will concern itself in its current session, they are many and ramified, the most prominent being the questions of Cyprus and of Algeria, and the failure of the London disarmament conference.

In the midst of the General Assembly's meetings, the talk continues of the Turkish concentrations on the Syrian border; of the memoranda Syria has sent to certain Arab states, asking their opinion of what Mr. Henderson declared concerning the anxiety of Syria's neighbors over the present situation there; and then of the latest Russian note to the Western powers concerning the conditions of the Middle East — all of which remains among those international questions that engross the attention of political circles, as witness the fact that the talks of Prince Faisal Al Saud, the Saudi Crown Prince, with President Eisenhower and his Secretary of State came at the very time that Damascus was receiving His Majesty King Saud, who had cut short his journey to West Germany and passed through Syria on his way back to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

And perhaps it is the concern the Saudi monarch shows for the present situation in Syria that has moved His Majesty to meet with the head of the Syrian state and the leading men of its government, to confer with them on the best means of restoring calm and stability to the Middle East region, whose life has been so profoundly affected by the deterioration of relations between Syria and the United States of America.