World Events in a Month

This corner is edited by: Ziyadeh Awwad

The month of December was marked by two important events, which overshadowed all other international happenings. The dispute that broke out between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and Israel over the demilitarized zone of Jerusalem led to the threat of fighting erupting between the two states. The international Security Council therefore decided to send to the Middle East, for a second time, Mr. Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General of the United Nations, who thereupon visited Beirut, Amman, Jerusalem, and Damascus, and conducted urgent negotiations with the responsible officials in those capitals; the result was the settlement of the question of the demilitarized zone, and the appointment of a representative of the Secretary-General between Jordan and Israel to resolve the questions and disputes that arise in the said zone.

On the margin of this event, the Americans launched their first artificial satellite, and the result came as a disappointment to their hopes: it fell, having gotten no more than a few meters away from its mother, the Earth. The Americans have bent once more to searching for the lost secret, in the hope that they may find it next March.

The council of the Atlantic Pact convened in Paris, attended by the heads of government of America, Britain, and thirteen other states, members of the Atlantic Pact.

Various subjects relating to the Pact were discussed, among them nuclear weapons, disarmament, the unification of scientific efforts among the member states, and Russia's proposal to the West of the principles of peaceful coexistence, which the Soviet Union has repeatedly laid before the Western states.

The Atlantic conference then dispersed, and the conferees issued a communiqué in which they replied to Russia's offers and expressed their hope that the Russians would prove by deeds, not by words, their sincere desire for disarmament and peaceful coexistence.

It is worth mentioning that the Atlantic communiqué placed disarmament negotiations with Russia at the head of the matters it expressed its desire to settle with Russia herself.

This apart, the opening event as far as Lebanon was concerned was the visit of His Majesty the Shah and Empress Soraya to Lebanon, where they spent five days as great guests of His Excellency the President of the Republic and his wife, in return for the visit President Chamoun paid to Iran in 1956.