Eban Tells Nationwide Tv Audience He Sees No ‘erosion’ in Nixon’s Mideast Position

Foreign Minister Abba Eban said today on the nationally televised “Meet the Press” program that he saw “no erosion” in President Richard M. Nixon’s Mideast position and reiterated Israel’s firm position that there would be no withdrawal from occupied territories before there is peace with its Arab neighbors. Mr. Eban also voiced strong opposition to any solution “imposed” on the region by the Big Four powers which, he contended, would “globalize” what is now a local conflict and thus increase the danger of a nuclear confrontation.

Mr. Eban conferred with President Nixon in the White House for 45 minutes Friday, met with Secretary of State William P. Rogers on four other occasions over the weekend, and spent 75 minutes at the United Nations yesterday with Secretary-General U Thant. Prior to his meeting with the President, the Israeli diplomat, appearing before the National Press Club, stressed what he considered to be the “complexity and peril” of big-power guarantees for a Mideast settlement. Mr. Eban said that his meetings with Mr. Nixon and other officials had convinced him that “the basic principles of U.S. policy in the Mideast over the past two years are still intact.”

On the “Meet the Press” telecast, Mr. Eban said Israel would not be bound by any Big Four decision and insisted that there was a gap between the Anglo-American and Franco-Soviet positions on the Arab-Israel conflict. He made it clear that Israel would not accept the return of UN emergency forces as a basis for its withdrawal. He recalled that the removal of the UN forces at President Nasser’s request in May, 1967 helped precipitate the Six-Day War.

PREDICTS EMERGENCE OF ‘NEW PEACE MAP’ IF ARABS COME TO TERMS

The Foreign Minister declared that in any peace settlement, “the agreement of the parties” to the conflict must come first. He said a “new peace map” would emerge if the Arabs come to terms but it would not represent a return to the 1949 armistice lines. He voiced the belief that a new war is “neither imminent nor inevitable.” He charged that Arab terrorists were the “tools and instruments of the Arab governments” and said Israel held those governments fully accountable for terrorist actions. He charged that Western information media had glamorized the terrorists who murdered innocent civilians in a supermarket and aboard an El Al airliner. Mr. Eban denied, in response to a question, that he had met secretly with King Hussein of Jordan in London last October. He said he was willing to meet Hussein or any other Arab leader in talking peace.

According to White House spokesman Ronald Ziegler, Mr. Eban’s meeting with Mr. Nixon took place in an “atmosphere of cordiality” and covered “important basic elements” involving the Mideast. Mr. Eban said later that he considered his visit to Washington “a very useful 72 hours” that afforded him an opportunity for a thorough discussion in depth at top levels. He said he and Secretary of State Rogers had the chance to go into “utmost detail.” Participants in the White House meeting included Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S., Yitzhak Rabin, and President Nixon’s top adviser on international security affairs. Dr. Henry Kissinger. Mr. Eban said that in his discussions with the President, “no maps were discussed.” He concluded that there was no reduction in the “harmony” of the “central accord” in American-Israeli relations.

Before meeting Mr. Eban, Mr. Nixon told a press conference that as a result of separate talks the U.S. has held in recent weeks with representatives of France, the Soviet Union and Britain, the Four Powers were “closer together than we were” on the Mideast. He cautioned, however, that he did not want to “leave the impression that we are completely together at this point…We still have a lot of yardage to cover and until we make further progress I don’t think we should lay out what our position is; I don’t think it would be helpful in bringing them to what we think is the right position.”

White House officials indicated following the Nixon-Eban meeting that the U.S. planned a series of meetings with Arab states similar to the high level discussions just concluded with Israel. They said the first such meeting will be held in the near future when King Hussein of Jordan visits Washington.

Mr. Eban declined to comment yesterday on his conversation with Secretary-General Thant. He said, however, that he felt the talks being conducted by the UN’s special peace envoy, Ambassador Gunnar V. Jarring, had entered a new phase. Dr. Jarring returned to his headquarters at Nicosia, Cyprus, after another round of visits to Mideast capitals. He reportedly submitted a list of questions designed to develop a peace plan to the governments of Egypt. Israel, Jordan and Lebanon. Diplomatic sources said he had received no replies to date. Mr. Thant was reported yesterday to have said that some form of Big Four talks would start sometime next week.