The United Nations peace envoy. Ambassador Gunnar Jarring will interrupt his mission in the Middle East briefly while he consults with Secretary General U Thant at U.N. headquarters in New York later this month and, possibly, makes a private visit to Sweden, it was reported here tonight. According to reliable sources, however, he has no intention of liquidating his Cyprus headquarters and is not thinking in terms of submitting a final report on his mission. Dr. Jarring met today with Gideon Rafael, director general of the Foreign Ministry, and other officials. Foreign Minister
Eban is on a tour of Scandinavia. The U.N. emissary is scheduled to go to Cairo tomorrow. He is reportedly focusing his efforts on trying to persuade Egypt to give Jordan a “free hand” in coming to terms with Israel. There was no confirmation of this from official sources and no information was released relative to his talks with Mr. Rafael.
But the atmosphere of today’s meeting was described as “neither an end nor a beginning of the end of his mission.” Informed quarters said that Dr. Jarring does not think that all avenues to an Arab-Israel solution have been exhausted and he is persisting in his efforts to get all or several of the Arab states together for talks with Israel. Israel’s policy is to continue to support the Jarring mission which it regards as a stabilizing factor in the Middle East.
(In London, King Hussein of Jordan met with Prime Minister Harold Wilson today at what was described as a “working luncheon.” John Stonehouse, Minister of Aviation and Military Supplies, was present. The discussion is believed to have concerned the Jarring mission and Jordan’s arms needs.)
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
