Reports that Secretary of State John Foster Dulles told Arab diplomats he favored a reduction of Israeli territory were denied here today. Arab demands for Israeli territories concessions–by moving back to its borders to those outlined in the 1947 United Nations partition decision–are considered unrealistic by the Department of State.
A high U.S. diplomatic source said today that this country stands ready to consider any “realistic approach” to peaceful settlement of Arab-Israel boundary differences. But it is not thought realistic to support a 1947 boundary proposal that the Arabs went to war to prevent, this source said.
The position of the State Department continues to be that enunciated by Secretary of State Dulles in 1955, according to the best information available from U. S. officials. Mr. Dulles then indicated that the Arabs and Israel should negotiate a permanent boundary agreement that would then be guaranteed by the United States through the United Nations.
In denying the reports that Secretary Dulles allegedly told Arab diplomats he favored a reduction of Israeli territory, it was pointed out that Mr. Dulles has not even discussed the Israel question in recent weeks with envoys of the Arab states. The last discussion of this matter, it was said, took place at Ankara at the Bagdad Pact conference. There, according to U.S. officials, Mr. Dulles actually prevented the Bagdad Pact deliberations from being confused by the attempted injection by Iraq of the Israel boundary issue.
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