Page:United Nations Security Council Meeting 3.pdf/18

39 note which has already been communicated to this Council.

(Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) (translated from Russian):


 * The statement reproduced below is the translation of a text supplied by Mr. Vyshinsky after the meeting.

I think it necessary to make the following statement.

As I have already stated, I will leave aside the questions of substance raised by the Iranian delegation and I will deal only with the procedural aspect. I will endeavour to bring proofs to refute the facts put forward by that Iranian Government which is no longer in power and whose claims are entirely without foundation.

The questions raised by the Iranian Government are set forth in two Iranian statements, but since they do not meet the conditions specified in the Charter these questions cannot be discussed by the Security Council. I shall also, however, have to touch on some questions of fact which have been put in an incorrect and tendentious light by the Iranian delegation. It is necessary to decide immediately whether the Security Council should or should not deal with the question raised by the former Iranian Government of Hakimi, which obviously aimed at aggravating the relations existing between Iran and the Soviet Union.

I will pass to the procedural aspect of the question. Here there are two main points. In the first place, it must be established whether or not negotiations took place between the Iranian and Soviet Governments. In the second place, the results of such negotiations must be considered. In its first declaration, made to the Security Council on 19 January, the Iranian delegation stated that the Iranian Government had repeatedly tried to open negotiations with the Soviet Government but had met with no success. At present and in its second document, the Iranian delegation admits that the Iranian Government not only endeavoured to negotiate with the Soviet Government but that such negotiations actually took place. The Iranian delegation itself thus refutes its first statement.

There remains the second question, namely: What were the results of these negotiations?

In its statement of 24 January addressed to the Security Council, the Soviet delegation pointed out that the Iranian Government, in its note of 1 December, expressed its satisfaction at the Soviet Government's statement contained in its note of 26 November. The Iranian delegation states that the translation of the Iranian note is inaccurate, and endeavours to present the whole matter as if it were disguised with the results of the exchange of notes between the Soviet Government and the Iranian Government in November of last year. I am not going to start a philological discussion, and in general I do not intend to argue the correctness or incorrectness of the translation of the particular