UN General Assembly
1969

changes in the cease-fire line except in the context of peace; in favour of establishing agreed permanent boundaries and other arrangements ensuring security from terror and war; against the ambiguities of an obsolete armistice; in favour of a permanent peace to be duly agreed and contractually confirmed. 169. This then is our position. The road back to the explosive and fragile armistice situation is closed, but the path leading forward to peace is wide open. Our business is to ensure that a new story of co-operation and progress never heard or told before, shall now be enacted in the history of the Middle East. 170. But, unfortunately, the Arab policies in the past 12 months have been designed to close such horizons from view. If we ask ourselves why there has been no progress towards peace in the past year, we come back to the simple fact that there has been no negotiation. In international disputes the existence of negotiations does not ensure success; but the absence of negotiations is an iron guarantee