501.BB Palestine/12–1348
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Chairman of the Delegation at Paris (Dulles)
| Participants: | Mr. Riad Bey Solh, Prime Minister of Lebanon |
| Dr. Malik | |
| Mr. Dulles |
On Monday, December 13th, the Prime Minister of Lebanon and Dr. Malik came to call upon me at the Hotel Crillon. I expressed to him my satisfaction that the Palestine Resolution had been adopted. I said I realized that the Arab States could, if they had wanted, have prevented the adoption of the Resolution by the necessary two-thirds. Of course, the Arab States themselves had voted against the Resolution, but I knew that states friendly to the Arabs had voted for the Resolution. I interpreted this as indicative of a spirit of conciliation on the part of the Arab States, which I thought augured well for the future. I did not, however, ask that the Prime Minister should comment on this aspect of the matter unless he so desired.
The Prime Minister said that he was quite glad to discuss this aspect of the matter. It was true that the Arab States could have defeated the Palestine Resolution at any time up to five minutes before the vote. They had decided not to do so and their decision had in considerable part been influenced by the talk which I had with him and by the hope I had held out that if once the Israel matter could be settled, that would mean an era of good relations, rather than increasingly bad relations, with the Arab States.
I said that the result of the vote had made me feel under a greater obligation than ever to try to assure the result that I had forecast as possible and that I would, upon my return, report our conversation to the President.
[Page 1665]The Prime Minister said that he hoped that the matter of Palestine would be disposed of first and the question of relations between the United States and Arab States dealt with only subsequently, not combining the two ideas.
There followed an exchange of courtesies.