The first
United Nations Emergency Force (
UNEF) was established by
United Nations General Assembly to secure an end to the 1956
Suez Crisis with resolution 1001 (ES-I) on
November 7, 1956. The force was developed in large measure as a result of efforts by
UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and a proposal from
Canadian minister of external affairs
Lester Pearson. The General Assembly had approved a plan
[1] submitted by the Secretary-General which envisaged the deployment of UNEF on both sides of the armistice line. However, the government of Israel refused to permit UNEF to deploy on their side of the line.
[2]UNEF was the first UN military force of its kind, its mission was to
UNEF was formed under the authority of the General Assembly and was subject to the national sovereignty clause, Article 2, Paragraph 7, of the U.N. Charter. An agreement between the Egyptian government and the Secretary-General, The Good Faith Accords, or Good Faith Aide-Memoire,[3] placed the UNEF force in Egypt with the consent of the Egyptian government.[4]
Since the operative UN resolutions were not passed under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the planned deployment of a military forces had to be approved by Egypt and Israel. Israel's Prime Minister refused to restore the 1949 armistice lines and stated that under no circumstances would Israel agree to the stationing of UN forces on its territory or in any area it occupied.[5] [6] After multilateral negotiations with Egypt eleven countries offered to contribute to a force on the Egyptian side of the armistice line Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, India, Indonesia, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Yugoslavia. Support was also provided by United States, Italy, and Switzerland. The first forces arrived in Cairo on November 15, and UNEF was at its full force of 6,000 by February 1957. The force was fully deployed in designated areas around the canal, in the Sinai and Gaza when Israel withdrew its last forces from Rafah on March 8, 1957. The UN Secretary-General sought to station UNEF forces on the Israeli side of the 1949 armistice lines, but this was rejected by Israel.[7]
