President Francois Mitterrand of France said today that he supports the peace proposals of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Fahd because they “can open up discussions” in the Middle East leading to peace in that area.
The important point of the eight-point proposal by Fahd is “recognition of all states in the area” which includes Israel, Mitterrand said on the ABC-TV “Issues and Answers” program filmed in Paris before he left for the U.S. to meet with President Reagan in Yorktown, Va. “That is a very considerable step forward,” he said.
Mitterrand agreed that it would be “very difficult for Israel to accept” some of Fahd’s points which include the creation of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem. But he noted that once negotiations start, the eight points which begin them would not necessarily be the eight points that end them,
Mitterrand said he always supported “any step” that moves the peace process forward. He noted that he was the only leading French politician who supported the Camp David process, saying that he approved it because it ended war between Israel and Egypt. But according to Mitterrand, Camp David may have been overly ambitious in trying to extend this to an overall peace process, something, he said, he does not believe is any longer possible through Camp David, especially after the death of Anwar Sadat.
Asked if he supported the Reagan Administration’s proposed sale of AWACS reconnaissance planes to Saudi Arabia, Mitterrand replied, “That’s not for me to say.”
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.
