UN General Assembly
1949

91. The Conciliation Commission had held a long session in Lausanne. The French, Turkish and United States members of the Commission deserved sincere congratulations for the tact, patience and detachment with which they had carried out their difficult task. The delegation of Lebanon had played an active and constructive role at the Lausanne conversations. At a certain stage in those conversations, the Arab and Israeli delegations had agreed — it was, perhaps, the first agreement between them — to a certain definite basis for any further useful continuance of the Lausanne discussions. Certain presuppositions had been agreed upon as forming the basis for further discussion through the good offices of the Conciliation Commission. That procedural agreement, bordering also on the substance of the issue, had been one of the most important events in the recent development of the Palestine question. The Israeli delegation had later shown itself disinclined to abide. by that agreement. If the Israeli representatives were to declare themselves prepared to honour in good faith what they had accepted four and a half months previously, there would be a new significant spurt of hopeful activity in the Conciliation Commission’s work.