A flurry of international diplomatic activity focused on the Middle East captivated politicians here over the weekend. Nothing concrete has been announced and there was more speculation than substance in reports of what could or would transpire in the weeks ahead.
But both Premier Yitzhak Shamir of the Likud bloc and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres of Labor profess to be pleased with what seems to be energetic American involvement in the regional peace process.
The Americans, their attentions focused urgently on the Persian Gulf situation during the past year, have been accused of lethargy with respect to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Now they appear to have been galvanized to action by the continuing violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Secretary of State George Shultz is expected to make a major policy speech on the Middle East this week. According to informed sources, he will revive President Reagan’s September 1982 initiative, which was received with less than enthusiasm by Israel and subsequently shelved.
But Shultz is also understood to be pressing for proposals for immediate steps to negotiate self-government for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
There are also rumors that Philip Habib, President Reagan’s special envoy to the Middle East, who visited King Hussein of Jordan in Amman this weekend, might embark on a new round of shuttle diplomacy in the region.
SHULTZ MAY PLAY ROLE
Some sources said Shultz himself might undertake the mission. The precedent was established for American secretaries of state by Henry Kissinger in 1973 and 1974.
In Washington, Shultz has met in recent days with Israeli Cabinet Secretary Elyakim Rubinstein, a close aide of Shamir, and with Simcha Dinitz, chairman of the World Zionist Organization Executive, who is a confidant of Peres.
Dinitz told the army radio in an interview Sunday that it would be wrong to think that the initiative now jelling in Washington would be limited to a new attempt to implement the autonomy provisions of the Camp David accords. Other elements are there too, Dinitz said, but he would not divulge details of his “long conversation with the secretary of state.”
Shultz also met last week with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and two prominent Palestinians: Hanna Seniora, editor of the East Jerusalem daily AI Fajr, and Fayez Abu Rahme, a Gaza lawyer.
Both partners of the national unity government have taken pains to express their satisfaction with the new spurt of American diplomatic activity. Shamir said he believes Shultz’s thinking is “close” to his own.
“What is good for peace is good for Peres,” a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said.
According to observers here, the U.S. government is plainly seeking to accommodate the differing points of view within the unity government and the divergences among Palestinian moderates.
There is to be an effort to implement the scheme for Palestinian autonomy, as advocated by Shamir, but in an expanded form, the observers say.
At the same time, there will be attempts to reassure Hussein and the Palestinians that negotiations over the final status of the administered territories will begin soon. The U.S. plan envisages some form of ceremonial international conference to give Hussein the protective umbrella he has always insisted upon before sitting down to negotiate with the Israelis.
Hussein will be in Paris on Tuesday. He is also going to Rome for a meeting with Pope John Paul II and then to Bonn.
Mubarak, having ended his official visit to the United States, is also heading for Paris, where he will have talks with President Francoise Mitterrand and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac.
The Egyptian president unveiled a five-point plan in Washington last week to end the unrest in the administered territories and advance the peace process.
In Amman, meanwhile, high-level officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization are reportedly trying to work out a joint position with Jordan in advance of the new peace moves — so far without success.
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.
