The United States sought today to counter interpretations” that President Carter is pessimistic on the prospects for a Geneva conference and progress towards a Middle East settlement this year.
The State Department took two steps to give reassurances the U.S. movement has not slowed and the Voice of America, in a broadcast that even preceded the Department’s public assertions, declared the ” cautious remarks” by the President do not “signal any change in the U.S. position.”
The State Department said “We are still extremely interested” in a conference and “interested in the views of the possible participants of prospects for peace.” It preceded this remark with an announcement that at Secretary of State Cyrus Vance’s suggestion, the Secretary will meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Yigal Allon in London May 11 to bring him up to date on the President’s discussions with Middle East leaders.
However, a scheduled meeting between Vance and Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz for today at the State Department was cancelled. Department spokesman Hodding Carter said it was “a foul-up on our side. The Ambassador was not informed.”
The spokesman pointed out in the wake of his meetings with Jordan’s King Hussein that the President has not concluded his round of talks with Middle East leaders and that Vance will visit the Mideast after he does.
The President is to see Syrian President Hafez Assad in Geneva about May 9, two days before Vance meets Allon, and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Fahd on May 25 in Washington a week after Israel’s election. It is now expected that the emergent leader of the Israeli elections will be welcomed to Washington shortly after that.
RESOLVING A SEE-SAW APPROACH
In his extemporaneous remarks on two successive mornings while with Hussein, President Carter spoke less optimistically or confidently than on previous occasions that a Geneva conference would be held this year. In between, however, he indicated the chances continued good and this view was bolstered by White House comments.
However, Carter’s last statement was that it would be better not to have a conference at all “unless we see some strong possibility for substantial achievements” in advance. When the State Department spokesman was asked to define “substantial progress,” he referred the questioner to “the President.”
The spokesman emphasized that “at this moment, the U.S. government is in no way backing away from its strong commitment to a major effort to reconvene the Geneva conference in the latter half of this year. The President’s meetings with all the Middle East leaders have underlined our determination on this score.”
The spokesman would not be drawn into naming the list of participants in the conference, saying, “We don’t have a list at this point” except those “who are already parties” to a Geneva conference. The point at issue is the Palestinian matter with Arab governments divided among themselves about it and Israel refusing to allow the Palestine Liberation Organization to join and indicating the other Palestinians could come in with a Jordanian delegation.
The State Department spokesman, in pointing out the President was not pessimistic, emphasized that Carter had also said yesterday morning that “so far I have been encouraged” by his talks. The President, the spokesman said, was “sounding a cautionary note” and “stating the obvious” in his remarks. “To suggest problems look insurmountable and no conference will be held this year would be the wrong analysis,” the spokesman said.
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.
