Plans to convene a Middle East peace conference in October have not been “adversely affected by events in the Soviet Union,” President Bush said Monday.
But he hinted that the peace conference could be delayed because of other factors.
The president made the comments during a news conference at his vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he announced that the United States would now recognize the independence of the three Baltic republics: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
When asked by reporters whether he and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev still hoped to convene the proposed peace conference in October, Bush replied, “I can’t give you the prospect of that.”
But he said, “I’d hope we’d be able to go forward with the peace conference that the whole world wants to see take place.”
And he indicated that any delay would not be a result of the tide of change sweeping the Soviet Union in the aftermath of last month’s attempted coup by hard-liners.
“The ball lies in other courts,” he said, without elaborating any further.
His comment was interpreted as an indication that the United States has still not resolved a key procedural obstacle to convening the peace conference: the problem of who will represent the Palestinians.
The Palestine Liberation Organization has insisted on a role in selecting the Palestinian delegates and wants Arabs from East Jerusalem to be included. Israel refuses on both points.
ISRAEL EXPECTED TO FOLLOW SUIT
U.S. Secretary of State James Baker reportedly will travel to the region soon, in a last-ditch attempt to settle this issue. But in Jerusalem, the Foreign Ministry said it had not received confirmation of a Baker visit.
Meanwhile, immigrant associations in Israel urged the government Monday to withhold recognition of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia until their governments publicly ask forgiveness from the Jewish people for their nations’ record toward the Jews during World War II.
Groups representing immigrants from the three Baltic republics argued that other newly democratic governments in Eastern Europe had seen fit to make such proclamations in recent years.
It was not clear, however, whether the appeal would affect Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s apparent determination to have Israel follow Washington’s lead and recognize the three republics in the coming days.
Last week, Shamir said Israel, as a small country, need not “rush” to recognize the Baltic republics. He indicated that Jerusalem would await Washington’s lead in this matter. Now that the United States has granted formal recognition, Israel is expected to follow suit.
(JTA correspondent David Landau in Jerusalem contributed to this report.)
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.
