The United States has rejected the Soviet Union’s recent four point proposal for a Middle East solution, informed sources said today. Secretary of State Dean Rusk stated this position unequivocally to Israel’s Foreign Minister Abba Eban at a New York meeting this week, the sources said. Mr. Rusk is said to have told Mr. Eban that the U.S. stands by previous assertions that only a settlement acceptable to both parties in the conflict would bring peace, while the Soviet proposal would have imposed a solution from outside. Israel rejected the Soviet proposal.
The Soviet plan would have imposed a timetable, starting with Israel’s withdrawal to the pre-June, 1967 boundaries, followed by a declaration of non-belligerence by the Arabs, a return of United Nations forces to the evacuated territories, and a four-power peace guarantee by the U.S., Soviet Union, Britain and France. France was the only major Western power which showed some inclination to accept the Soviet plan as a basis for discussions, sources said. They noted that Paris had been insisting for the past year that only a four-power agreement could solve the Middle East impasse; that element in the Soviet plan appealed to them.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
