Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz met first with Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger today and then with Undersecretary of State Joseph J. Sisco in an apparent attempt to tie up any loose ends before Kissinger leaves for the Middle East at 10 o’clock tonight. All Dinitz would say to newsmen after both meetings, which lasted a total of 90 minutes, was that it was the policy and intention of both Israel and the United States to make Kissinger’s “shuttle diplomacy” smoother.
The State Department’s two specialists on the Middle East who conferred for four days last week with Israeli political experts on a second stage Israeli withdrawal in the Sinai, will accompany Kissinger on his latest Mideast trip. Sisco and Assistant Secretary Alfred Atherton will be among the officials.
Kissinger hopes to return to Washington by the end of August with a Cairo-Jerusalem agreement in hand and prepare to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York Sept. 1 or 2. He expects to see Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko there at that time. The U.S. is keeping both the Soviet Union and the UN informed of the talks taking place by the U.S. with Israel and Egypt.
Meanwhile, the State Department said today that news reports here that the United States has assured Israel it will arrange for another buffer force in the Sinai should the United Nations troops there be withdrawn for any reason were not accurate. Spokesman Robert Funseth said “that particular point as reported is not correct.”
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