Problems confronting the Middle East, as well as relations between the United States and the United Arab Republic were discussed here today between President Eisenhower and United Arab Republic President Nasser at a conference which lasted more than an hour. The conference took place in President Eisenhower’s suite at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
James Hagerty, President Eisenhower’s press secretary, said after the conference that as far as he knew today, there were no plans for Mr. Eisenhower to meet Mr. Nasser in Washington. Asked whether President Eisenhower discussed the Suez blockade issue with Mr. Nasser, or American aid to the United Arab Republic, Mr. Hagerty said he was not authorized to discuss specific matters that came up in the talks between the two Presidents.
Attending the conference as part of President Eisenhower’s party were Secretary of State Christian Herter and Assistant Secretary of State G. Lewis Jones, who is in charge of Near East and South Asian affairs in the State Department. President Nasser was accompanied by his Foreign Minister, Dr. Mahmoud Fawzi; Mustaf Kamal, UAR Ambassador in Washington and the Cairo Government’s ministers of the Interior and for Guidance.
When President Nasser left the hotel, he stopped for a moment to tell newspapermen: “I enjoyed the meeting and I am looking forward to strengthening the good relations between the United States and the UAR.” Mr. Nasser had also told President Eisenhower of his pleasure in visiting the United States for the first time.
Mr. Hagerty confirmed that President Eisenhower plans to deliver an address in San Francisco October 20. However, he said he was not sure whether Mr. Eisenhower’s visit to San Francisco will coincide with a visit scheduled to be made in that city by Mr. Nasser.
Mr. Nasser is scheduled to deliver an address tomorrow morning at the United Nations General Assembly. Prior to his visit today to President Eisenhower, the UAR President conferred this afternoon with India’s Prime Minister Nehru at the UAR mission headquarters here. After his meeting with President Eisenhower, Mr. Nasser conferred with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at the latter’s headquarters here. He also conferred tonight with President Tito of Yugoslavia.
(In Washington, the Democratic National Committee today condemned the appeasement of President Nasser by the Administration. Attacking the Administration for siding with the Soviet Union to rescue Nasser in the 1956 Sinai-Suez war, the Democratic party said today in an official publication that “since then Nasser has been riding high and Soviet penetration of the Middle East has proceeded.”)
Arab correspondents here today cabled to their newspapers that delegations of Arab countries at the United Nations held a secret meeting at which it was decided to request the UN General Assembly to include in its agenda a proposal for the revival and reorganization of the UN Palestine Conciliation Commission which was established in 1948 but is inactive. The Commission was originally established to help carry out the UN resolutions on Palestine, but its program is now limited primarily to questions of compensation for Arab property left in Israel.
The Arab correspondents said that Arab delegates found the time opportune now for their proposal, in view of the increase in membership in the United Nations. The Arab diplomats were reported as believing that some of the new states, which might become members of the Conciliation Commission, would be friendly to the Arab states and act in their favor.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
