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THE FRAMEWORK OF THE UNITED NATIONS 159
more, he apprised the Political Committee of the fact that the current
discussion of the question ‘constituted interference in the Sultanate's
internal affairs in violation of Article 2(7) of the Charter’ which pre­
cludes United Nations intervention in matters falling within the
domestic jurisdiction of States.1
At the seventeenth session of the General Assembly, the question
of Oman was again considered by the Special Political Committee.
Consequently, a draft resolution, sponsored by eighteen States was
approved. It stated:

The General Assembly, deeply concerned with the situation in Oman and
recalling its resolution 1514(XV) of 14 December 1960, containing a declara­
tion on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples,
would (1) recognise the right of the people of Oman to self-determination
and independence; (2) call for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Oman;
and (3) invite the parties concerned to settle peacefully their differences with
a view to restoring normal conditions in Oman.2

The above resolution, however, failed to receive the necessary two-
thirds majority in the plenary meeting of the General Assembly, and
was thus not adopted.3
In August 1963, Mr de Ribbing, Swedish Ambassador to Spain,
who was earlier authorised by the Secretary-General to conduct a
fact-finding mission on Oman, submitted his report to the Secretary-
General.4 On 18 September 1963 the Assembly’s General Committee
recommended the allocation of the question of Oman to the Fourth
Committee. The discussion of the question in the Fourth Committee
revealed that some representatives had regarded the question as a
colonial issue arising from ‘a series of treaties imposing heavy and
unreasonable obligations on the Territory’.5 On the other hand, the
United Kingdom’s representative took the other extreme line of de­
fending the independence of‘Muscat and Oman’, under the sovereignty
of the Sultan. He rejected totally the argument that Muscat and
Oman was a colonial territory or that the ‘British colonial system’ did
in fact apply to it. In his view, which reflected that of the Sultan,6 the
‘so-called question of Oman’ was an internal matter which fell outside

1 Ibid., p. 34; Y.U.N., 1961, pp. 150-1. For a fuller account of the British
Government’s position on Oman, see U.N. No. 1 Oman (1963) C/nnd. 2087 (Report
on the Proceedings of the 17th Session of the General Assembly of the United
Nations on Oman, September-December, 1962).
2 Y.U.N., 1961, p. 149; Report of the Ad Hoc Committee, op. cit., pp. 35-7.
3 Y.U.N., 1962, p. 147; ibid, 1963, p. 70.
4 Ibid., 1963, p. 70. And see A/5562. Note by Secretary-General transmitting
report of Special Representative of Secretary-General on his visit to Oman.
6 Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Oman, op. cit., p. 43; Y.U.N., 1963, p. 71.
6 Sec A/C.4/619. Cable of 26 October 1963, from Sultan of Muscat and Oman,
objecting to the discussion of the question by the United Nations.