A reported 12-point American proposal spelling out the details of a settlement between Israel and Jordan was disclosed by The New York Times. The proposal was submitted to the Four Powers (U.S., Soviet Union, Britain and France) at a meeting on the Mideast crisis here last Thursday, according to Times reporter Peter Grose.
According to the Times report, the proposal goes beyond any previous U.S. representations in that it contains a detailed plan for a solution of the Palestinian refugee problem. Under the plan, the refugees would be given the choice of repatriation to Israel or resettlement in Arab countries with compensation from Israel.
Mr. Grose reported that “it would be up to Israeli and Jordanian negotiators to agree on the number of refugees to be permitted repatriation annually, but the American paper specifies that the first refugees should arrive in Israel no more than three months after conclusion of a settlement.”
Mr. Grose said that in the American view, the proposal would give Israel a virtual veto over the number of Arab refugees to be admitted but Israeli analysts have denounced the plan on grounds that it would commit Israel to the principle of individual choice by each refugee even before the negotiations began.
The U.S. plan calls for the conclusion of a final and reciprocally binding agreement between Israel and Jordan to be reached under the auspices of United Nations peace envoy Gunnar V. Jarring following the procedure used by the Israelis and Arabs at the 1949 Rhodes armistice talks.
According to Mr. Grose, the two parties would work out a timetable for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from substantially all of the West Bank occupied by Israel in the June, 1967 Six-Day war and “each country would accept the obligations of a state of peace between them, including the prohibition of any acts of violence from its territory against the other.”
Under the American Plan, Israel and Jordan would agree to permanent frontiers “approximating” the 1949 armistice demarcation line but allowing for “alterations based on practical security requirements and administrative or economic convenience.” The proposal relating to Jerusalem repeated almost to the word, Secretary Rogers’ Dec. 9 reference to the city, according to Mr. Grose. The plan calls for a unified city in which Israel and Jordan would share in the civic and economic responsibilities of city government. Other sections of the proposal would have Israel and Jordan work out an arrangement for the Gaza Strip in line with a parallel accord between Israel and Egypt, and security arrangements for the West Bank including the delineation of demilitarized zones. Jordan would affirm that the Straits of Tiran and Gulf of Aqaba are international waterways open to the shipping of all nations including Israel.
The American proposal notes that an Israeli-Jordanian settlement would take effect only with a simultaneous accord between Israel and Egypt, “a point stressed by U.S. officials to rebut Arab charges that the plan seeks to divide the Arabs,” Mr. Grose wrote.
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.
