Foreign Minister Abba Eban predicted that the United States would undertake a new effort this year to help bring about a partial settlement in the Middle East. Addressing a young leadership group of the Labor Party here Thursday night, Eban noted that while 1972 was characterized by a strengthening of Israel’s military and economic sectors, this year would be marked by a growth of political efforts to resolve the Mideast situation and that the U.S. would take a leading part. Therefore, Eban stated, Israel’s first task is to clarify with the American administration in what way it will implement its foreign policy principles in the Middle East.
According to an interview in Yediot Achronot, Eban stated that with the war in Vietnam coming to an end, the focus of Washington will be on the Mideast, Asked if the end of the Vietnam war would not leave America free to pressure Israel to solve the situation in the Mideast, Eban stated that Israel is not opposed to U.S. activity to bring peace closer.
He noted that American activity, which is based on opposition to an imposed solution, provides for a balance of power and rejects an Arab-Soviet solution, is favored by Israel more than any other approach by a Western power.
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