Diplomatic Tensions Heighten with Reports That Jarring Offers Own Peace Plan

Diplomatic tensions rose today following published reports in Israel and London that Middle East peace intermediary Gunnar V. Jarring was seeking to break the Arab-Israeli deadlock by submitting a peace plan of his own. The reaction from Israeli observers in Jerusalem was that if the reports were true the Jarring mission was ended, as Israel has always insisted that the Swedish diplomat was not supposed to propose solutions. That, the observers said, was the basis on which Israel had agreed to the Jarring talks. There was no official Israeli comment on the reports, as spokesmen decline to speak on peace-talk developments and newspaper stories about them. Knowledgeable sources in Jerusalem, however, reported that they regarded the reputed Jarring plan as very unlikely, being out of character with his known modus operandi.

According to the published reports, Dr. Jarring is suggesting that Israel withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula but retain the Gaza Strip; that the Strait of Tiran revert to Egypt; that a United Nations force be stationed at Sharm el-Sheikh, adjoining the Strait at the tip of the Sinai, and that Egypt recognize Israeli sovereignty. A UN spokesman refused today to confirm or deny the reports, repeatedly fending off newsmen’s questions by reiterating that he never commented on Dr. Jarring’s specific activities. He declined also to confirm whether, under Security council Resolution 242 of Nov. 22, 1967. Dr. Jarring is in fact empowered to make proposals. He noted that under the resolution Dr. Jarring is “a special representative” (of the Secretary General) who is to “establish and maintain contacts with the states concerned in order to promote agreement and assist efforts to achieve a peaceful and accepted settlement.” The spokesman refused to elaborate, even when asked if under that defintion Dr. Jarring was a “promoter.”

The spokesman confirmed, however, that the ambassador had stated last August that he did not consider himself a “mediator,” a term that suggests merely a go-between and not an initiator. (In this connection, it will be recalled that in a television interview from Washington last Dec. 20, Prime Minister Edward Heath of Britain called on Dr. Jarring to cease being “only a letterbox” and to “put forward options to each side.”) (In Washington today, State Department spokesman Robert J. McCloskey refused to comment on the reported Jarring plan.) Meanwhile. Israeli Ambassador Yosef Tekoah called on Secretary General Thant today and told newsmen afterwards that they had “reviewed developments” in the Mideast since their last meeting at the beginning of the month. The envoy added that they had discussed the situation of Soviet Jewry and that he had given Thant emigration petitions from “hundreds” of Soviet Jews. Thant was scheduled to meet late this afternoon with Jordanian Ambassador Muhammad H. el-Farra and Lebanese Ambassador Edouard Ghorra.