55 years ago/May 18, 1967

The Egyptian troops continued to move to the Sinai. The Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abba Eban continued to try to find a way to solve the situation with diplomatic tools. However, the most important meetings and discussions happened in New York on this day.

On the morning Major General Indar Jit Rikhye reported that in Cairo Mahmoud Riad, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Republic (Egypt) contacted the representatives of the countries which provided the contingents of the UNEF about its termination and asked them to help in the immediate removal of the troops.

12 noon (local time, New York) Mohamed el-Kony, the Permanent Representative of the UAR to the UN conveyed the note to U Thant, the Secretary-General of the UN about the request of the withdrawal of UNEF. U Thant expressed his concerns, but didn’t indicate that the request would be opposed. Meanwhile, Constantin Stavropoulos, legal counsel to UN changed his opinion, and suggested to keep the UNEF troops in camps for ten days until the General Assembly or Security Council could deal with the issue.

U Thant also had a meeting with the UNEF Advisory Committee – representatives of Brazil, Canada, Ceylon, Colombia, Denmark, India, Norway, Pakistan, Sweden and Yugoslavia – to inform them about the situation. The secretary general of the UN believed that without the consent of the UAR it wasn’t legitimate for the UNEF to stay, and the troops wouldn’t have stayed in a situation what could become hostile. However, Canadian Ambassador George Ignatieff suggested to negotiate with the UAR and also to consult the General Assembly – Brazil and Denmark supported this viewpoint, while India, Pakistan and Yugoslavia opposed further consultation. After the meeting U Thant informed el-Kony about the withdrawal the UNEF, even if asked him to let his government know about his concerns.

At 22:30 (local time, New York) U Thant cabled General Rikhye that until 5pm (local time, Egypt) May 19, 1967 the UNEF should be withdrawn from its observation posts. General Rikhye informed the Israeli authorities about the decision.

The decision of U Thant has been disputed since 1967, and some even accused him with partiality – to the favour of the other side, of course. The West, US, UK, Canada criticized the decision, Israel was disappointed as well, while the Arab world greeted it. U Thant repeated two reasons for his decision: legally, the UNEF was deployed with the permission of Egypt on her soil, requesting to withdraw the UNEF meant the withdrawal of that permission. On the other hand, he said, he worried about the troops who were between two armies.