Big Four to Get Report on Rogers’ Trip; Jarring May Be Relieved of Mission

A Big Four meeting of sorts will take place at the United Nations in New York next Monday when Secretary of State William P. Rogers and Assistant Secretary Joseph J. Sisco report on their Middle East mission to Secretary General Thant and Mideast intermediary Dr. Gunnar V. Jarring. Dr. Jarring is due to return to UN headquarters tonight. State Department spokesman Robert J. McCloskey, who made the announcement, added that Sisco conferred for an hour here this morning with Israeli Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin on the subject of Sisco’s consultations in Cairo. In New York, the Assistant Secretary will also meet with the ambassadors of Jordan. Britain, France and Italy ” and others.” McCloskey said. State Department sources added that United States Ambassador George Bush probably will not divulge details of the Rogers-Sisco talks in the Mideast at the next meeting of the real Big Four, next Tuesday at the Soviet Mission in New York. The sources did not explain the reason for this decision.

One State Department official suggested that the future of the Jarring peace mission might depend on a favorable report from Rogers. Observers speculated that if Secretary General Thant saw no progress in the Rogers report he might decide to relieve Dr. Jarring of his Mideast duties. In his brief public remarks since ending his tour, however, Rogers has indicated that he made some progress. It is also possible, observers said, that if Thant does not see any progress developing on an interim agreement to reopen the Suez Canal, the attempt at an interim pact might be shifted from an Israeli-Egyptian issue to an Israeli-Jordanian issue. A State Department official also left the impression that a negotiator other than Dr. Jarring might be brought in to handle the details of an interim agreement. He reemphasized, however, the State Department’s position that the U.S. is not angling to be a third party.