Foreign Minister Abba Eban told the Cabinet today that the U.S. still stands by at least three basic principles for a solution of the Mideast conflict which coincide more or less with Israel’s position. Mr. Eban did not evaluate the progress–or lack of it–in the Big Four talks so far. He said, however, that the U.S. believed that there must be a contractual peace, that the two sides should, at some time, meet directly and that the armistice lines which existed in May, 1967 are not the secure and agreed boundaries called for by the Security Council’s Nov. 22, 1967 resolution.
Mr. Eban would not estimate how long the Big Four talks would last, but said that the U.S. envisaged a two month limit. (The four will hold their fifth meeting tomorrow at the New York residence of the French UN Ambassador, Armand Berard.) Mr. Eban told the Cabinet that King Hussein’s various remarks during his visit to the U.S. confirmed Israel’s previous evaluation of his peace proposals as having no practical meaning. He declared that the only Arab proposals that should be taken seriously are those that Arab leaders bring to a peace table.
(King Hussein was to meet this weekend in London with Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart. Jordanian Premier Abdel Moneim Rifai told the Cairo newspaper Akhbar el-Youm that King Hussein’s six-point peace plan presented in a Washington speech was not new. He said it contained the points appearing in the Security Council resolution.)
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