1st emergency special session: Middle East (Suez Crisis) (1956)

The first explicit use of the UFP resolution was the 1956 Suez crisis, which followed the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company and the subsequent invasion of Egypt by Israel on 29 October 1956, supported by France and the UK. In response, first the US and then the USSR put forward draft resolutions in the SC, both calling for Israel to withdraw its armed forces.¹ These were vetoed by France and the UK (S/3710; S/3713/Rev.1). By a vote of 7 to 2 (France and the UK), with 2 abstentions, the SC decided to call for an emergency special session of the GA, explicitly noting that “lack of unanimity of its permanent members” had prevented it from exercising its primary responsibility to maintain peace and security (the language of the UFP) (S/RES/119).

During the 1st emergency special session, the GA passed seven resolutions that collectively called for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Sinai Peninsula, the withdrawal of French and British troops from northern Egypt and the reopening of the Suez Canal, and then authorized and set up the first ever deployment of a UN peacekeeping force (see case study on force UNEF) to help oversee the ceasefire and withdrawal of forces.² Upon request by the USSR, the SC debated the issue at the same time but did not adopt a draft resolution by the USSR calling for military assistance for Egypt given that the matter was being actively dealt with in the GA.³ Britain and France withdrew their forces within a week of the GA resolution 997 (ES-I), while Israel fully withdrew by March 1957.⁴ It is notable that the GA’s resolution was issued while the matter remained on the SC’s agenda, demonstrating early recognition of the ability of the GA to take up matters concurrently with the SC.⁵