Sisco Seen Too Involved in Mideast Policy to Be Named UN Ambassador

Informed sources voiced doubt today over reports that Joseph J. Sisco, said to be the leading candidate for the post of United States ambassador to the United Nations, would get the job. They explained that as the prime mover behind the Nixon administration’s Middle East policy, Sisco has the special confidence of Nixon, who has said that when the Vietnam war is ended the Mideast will receive top priority in foreign affairs.

The present ambassador, former Texas Congressman George Bush, was named publicly Monday as the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, effective early next year.

While UN envoys negotiate and vote according to instructions from Washington, the sources noted, the thrust of U.S. policy in recent years has been away from the world organization and toward an emphasis on a U.S.-mediated interim agreement to reopen the Suez Canal. To remove Sisco from this effort would undercut the State Department’s interim efforts, the sources said. “They’re not going to take him away,” one source said flatly while stressing that Nixon has the final say. There has been no indication that the change in envoys to linked to a change in American policy on the Mideast.

POSSIBLE SUCCESSORS INDICATED

The sources, asked by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to suggest possible successors to Bush, offered these names; Christopher H. Phillips, Bush’s lanky taciturn deputy; Samuel De Palma, Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs; Mrs. Rita E, Hauser, former representative to the UN Human Rights Commission, and Kenneth B. Keating, former Senator from New York and former ambassador to India.

Mrs. Hauser, who had Jewish parents but was raised as a Methodist, is highly regarded in legal and Republican circles, and in her UN post was active in pressing the case for Soviet Jewish rights. Some sources suggested that after Bush leaves, Phillips might be named acting permanent representative. But they agreed that a “name” diplomat would have to be designated before too long.

Some sources said religion would not figure in Nixon’s choice of a UN representative. They said Nixon would have no reason to deliberately choose a Jew, as U.S. support for Israel is already obvious and anathema enough to the Arabs. Other informed sources, however, said religion would “obviously be a factor” as the Arabs are hard enough to negotiate with as it is without inflaming them by naming a Jew as the U.S. go-between.

A Darmstadt court in West-Germany has sentenced three former Nazi prison guards to a total of 241/2 years prison for abetting the murder of Jews during World War II. The sentenced were George Bostting, 64, Paul Fuchs, 61, and Alois Retold, 61.