President Eisenhower said today that Egypt’s proposal for new Suez talks contains nothing substantive on which to base a second conference. Egypt’s President Col. Nasser proposed yesterday that all states using the Suez Canal–except Israel–should meet in conference to revise the Constantinople Convention of 1888.
At his weekly press conference, President Eisenhower reaffirmed support for a peaceful solution to the Suez dispute. He expressed regret that Egyptian Premier Col. Nasser had rejected the 18-nation proposal for international control of the Canal.
The President said that the U. S. is in continual consultation with other countries seeking an answer to the Suez dispute. But the President avoided direct answers to questions of whether the U. S. would back its allies if Britain and France resorted to force over the Suez issue.
Asked about the possibility of taking the Suez dispute to the United Nations, President Eisenhower indicated that he was not sure that this was the correct time to refer the issue to the world body. He said, however, that the U. S. would put the dispute before the United Nations before taking what he called physical steps.
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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.