Secretary of State George Shultz stressed Thursday that the United States will continue to “explore in detail” any opportunity to achieve peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors, including an international conference.
But, there is “a long distance from where we are now” and actually setting up such a conference, Shultz said at a press conference at the State Department.
“Obviously an international conference, in and of itself, is not of any interest to us,” the Secretary said. “Direct negotiations are, we think, the way to go.”
He added that if an international conference could be organized to “achieve the results we are seeking, then we are willing to examine that possibility.”
Shultz indicated that it is the need to examine “anything that can be legitimately a way to move peace forward” that prompted him to send his executive assistant, Charles Hill, to Israel next week.
There has been much speculation of why Hill is going rather than Richard Murphy, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, who normally makes this type of trip.
Shultz noted that Hill “knows these issues very well, is very close to me and knows the people there very well.” Hill formerly served at the U.S. Embassy in Israel and was head of the State Department’s Israel desk.
He is scheduled to have “we hope quiet, in depth talks” in an effort to find “exactly how people there feel,” Shultz said.
However, the U.S. does know the feelings of Israel’s coalition government which is deeply divided between Foreign Minister Shimon Peres who supports an international conference to provide the “umbrella” King Hussein of Jordan feels he needs for negotiations with Israel and premier Yitzhak Shamir who is vehemently opposed to such a conference. Hill apparently will be trying to see if there is any chance of overcoming the opposition from Shamir and his Likud bloc.
Shultz, who is scheduled to meet with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze in Washington Sept. 15-17, did not mention the Soviet Union which has been pushing for an international conference. As envisioned by Hussein, the conference would include the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — the U.S., USSR, Britain, France and the People’s Republic of China.
Both Israel and the U.S. have stressed that the Soviet Union, and presumably China, could not participate as long as they do not have diplomatic relations with Israel and that Soviet participation would also require increased emigration for Soviet Jews.
SAYS PALESTINIANS MUST PARTICIPATE
At his press conference, Shultz stressed that the U.S. wants to see “progress” toward peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. He said this requires direct negotiations, including the participation of Palestinians as part of a Jordanian delegation.
“You have to find Palestinians that are able to represent the Palestinian people on the West Bank and are acceptable to Israel,” he added. This would rule out the Palestine Liberation Organization which all sides in the Israeli government reject as a legitimate negotiating party.
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.
