UN Assembly takes on Soviets

An emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly was called Jan. 10 to deal with the presence of Soviet troops in Afghanistan. The emergency session, meeting under a rarely invoked "United for Peace" procedure, is likely to adopt by a two-thirds majority the same resolution that the Soviet Union vetoed in the Security Council Jan. 9.

The resolution "deeply deplores" the armed intervention in afghanistan and calls for the "immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all foreign troops" from that country. But the resolution is not mandatory and will have no practical effect. Its adoption, however, is considered to be a moral blow to the Soviet Union.

This Soviet diplomatic defeat will, in turn, assure America's defeat in the Security Council with regard to sanctions against Iran.

But the vote on Iranian sanctions is expected to be delayed until after Iranian presidential elections Jan. 25. The nonaligned nations have been pushing for this delay so that eventual negotiations will be with a bona fide Iranian government.