Summary
The Security Council’s resolution of 22 October 1973, adopted by 14 votes to none with one member (China) not participating, which calls on all parties to the present fighting to cease all firing and terminate all military activity immediately, no later than 12 hours after adoption, in the positions they now occupy, calls on the parties concerned to start immediately after the cease-fire the implementation of resolution 242 (1967) in all of its parts, and decides that negotiations shall start immediately and concurrently with the cease-fire, between the parties concerned under appropriate auspices, aimed at establishing a just and durable peace in the Middle East (Resolution 338 (1973) (22 October 1973), PDF p.1).
What the file is
The resolution as printed in the Security Council’s Official Records, printed p.10. 1 PDF page, about 688 words in the text copy counting the whole page. The page first carries the Council’s August 1973 invitation decisions and Resolution 337 (1973) of 15 August 1973 on the Israeli air force’s seizure of a Lebanese airliner, then the October 1973 invitation decisions, then Resolution 338; Resolution 337 and the decisions are accounted for below and are not part of Resolution 338. Resolution 338 itself has no preamble in this printing: three operative paragraphs and an adoption line. The text copy’s OCR garbles scattered words elsewhere on the page and the resolution’s date heading, and garbles the operative paragraphs (“laiter” for later, “implementaition” for implementation, “drnable” for durable, and a stray comma in “,to start”); the original’s printed page was checked and reads the operative wording cleanly, with no comma before “to start”.
Section by section
- Preceding decisions and Resolution 337 (1973) (PDF p.1). Invitations of 13-14 August 1973 (Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Democratic Yemen) on Lebanon’s letter of 11 August 1973 (S/10983), and Resolution 337 condemning Israel for violating Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and forcibly diverting and seizing a Lebanese airliner on lease to Iraqi Airways, considering the actions a violation of the 1949 Lebanese-Israeli Armistice Agreement, the 1967 cease-fire resolutions, the Charter, the civil aviation conventions and the principles of international law and morality, calling on the International Civil Aviation Organization to take due account, and solemnly warning Israel; adopted unanimously at the 1740th meeting. Not part of Resolution 338.
- Preceding decisions, October 1973 (PDF p.1). At the 1743rd meeting, 8 October 1973, invitations to Egypt, Israel and the Syrian Arab Republic on the item opened by the United States letter of 7 October 1973 (S/11010); at the 1745th meeting, 11 October 1973, invitations to Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
- Operative paragraph 1 (PDF p.1). Calls on all parties to the present fighting to cease all firing and terminate all military activity immediately, no later than 12 hours after the moment of adoption, in the positions they now occupy.
- Operative paragraph 2 (PDF p.1). Calls on the parties concerned to start immediately after the cease-fire the implementation of Security Council resolution 242 (1967) in all of its parts.
- Operative paragraph 3 (PDF p.1). Decides that, immediately and concurrently with the cease-fire, negotiations shall start between the parties concerned under appropriate auspices aimed at establishing a just and durable peace in the Middle East.
- Adoption (PDF p.1). “Adopted at the 1747th meeting by 14 votes to none”, with footnote 27: one member (China) did not participate in the voting.
Key passages
- “Calls upon all parties to the present fighting to cease all firing and terminate all military activity” (operative paragraph 1, PDF p.1).
- “in all of its parts” (operative paragraph 2, on the implementation of resolution 242 (1967), PDF p.1).
- “under appropriate auspices” (operative paragraph 3, on the negotiations aimed at a just and durable peace, PDF p.1).
Evidence the work relies on
A Council resolution, not an evidentiary work. Its only cited instrument is resolution 242 (1967), which paragraph 2 incorporates by reference “in all of its parts”. The page’s surrounding decisions cite the letters S/10983 (Lebanon) and S/11010 (United States) that opened the respective items; Resolution 338 itself cites no letter, report or testimony.
Analysis
The resolution is a cease-fire instrument of three sentences: a timed halt in place (12 hours, positions as occupied at adoption), implementation of resolution 242 as the substantive programme, and immediate negotiations under unnamed “appropriate auspices”. It names no party, State, territory or war, refers only to “the present fighting” and “the parties concerned”, and contains no mention of the Palestinians, a Palestinian people, or the refugee problem beyond what resolution 242 itself carries. Its limits are the text’s: no enforcement measure, no named auspices, and no timetable beyond the cease-fire hour and the immediacy of paragraphs 2-3.
People, organizations, places and events
UN Security Council Resolution 338, UN Security Council Resolution 242, UN Security Council
Concepts
How it relates to other sources
Resolution 338 makes Resolution 242 (1967) (22 November 1967) operative as a package — “in all of its parts” — where 242 itself had stated principles and a Special Representative mandate without a cease-fire. Within this batch, the PLO Interim Political Program (Ten-Point Program) (8 June 1974) of 8 June 1974 responds to the post-338 order by reaffirming refusal of 242 at any level including the Geneva Conference, on the stated ground that 242 deals with the Palestinian cause as a problem of refugees; Resolution 338’s own text, which does not mention the Palestinians at all, is the primary wording behind that dispute. Resolution 337 on the same printed page links the Council’s 1973 Middle East record to the Lebanese-Israeli General Armistice Agreement, which it held the airliner seizure to violate.
Open questions
- The resolution does not name the parties to the present fighting, the auspices for the negotiations, or any territory; those matters are left open in the text itself.
- No chapter of the Charter is invoked for the resolution’s authority in the text.
- Footnote 27 records that China did not participate in the voting; the file gives no reason.
Coverage
PDF p.1 of 1, read in full.