President Carter said here today that a Middle East peace settlement must include “a resolution of the Palestinian problem and a homeland for the Palestinians.” The President, who arrived in Geneva for a meeting with Syrian President Hafez Assad, added that such an agreement must also include an assurance of permanent and real peace with guarantees for the future security of these countries (in the Middle East) which all can trust.
Carter arrived here this afternoon from the economic summit conference in London. In a brief statement at the airport, he said “I hope that later this year we might come back (to Geneva) to find a resolution of differences that have separated one nation from another and one people from another for many, many years in the Eastern Mediterranean area.” At the meeting with Assad, Carter was accompanied by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and the chairman of the National Security Council, Zbigniew Brzezinski.
Before the meeting, Carter addressed the press together with Assad. Both men seemed to be addressing each other, saying openly and publicly what each appeared to think the other would like to hear. Carter paid tribute to Assad’s work for peace, thanked him for coming to Geneva to meet with him and described his experience in world affairs. He also apparently wanted to prepare a good working climate by stressing the Palestinian homeland and a resolution of the Palestinian problem.
CITES NEED FOR FLEXIBILITY
Carter said a peace agreement must be based on flexibility. “There must be forgetting about past differences and misunderstandings, there must be determination and there must be a resolution of the Palestinian problem and a homeland for the Palestinians,” Carter said. “There must be some resolution of border disputes. There must be an assurance of permanent and real peace with guarantees for the future security of these countries, which all can trust.”
Assad, speaking in Arabic without notes, stressed Syria’s desire for peace and its determination to seek a just and lasting solution. He said he was optimistic because Carter, by his previous remarks, created an optimistic climate.
Assad then read a written statement in which he denounced Israel’s continued occupation of Arab land and Israel’s refusal to recognize the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people. He stressed that the Geneva conference should provide a suitable framework for the implementation of the Middle East resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and the General Assembly.
The General Assembly’s resolutions on the Middle East have often been violently anti-Israel and it was generally thought they could not serve as a basis or a framework for the Geneva conference or for any solution of the conflict. Carter and Assad retired to the 17th floor of the Intercontinental Hotel, overlooking the Palace of Nations where the Geneva conference convened briefly in December, 1973, for their talks. Vance is due to meet in London Wednesday with Israeli Foreign Minister Yigal Allon and will visit the Middle East next month. In the meantime, Carter will meet in Washington with Saudi Arabia’s Prince Fahd.
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