After conveying “warm greetings” to Israel “from President Johnson and on behalf of the American people,” Undersecretary of State W. Averell Harriman held his first secret conference here today with Premier Levi Eshkol, attended also by Foreign Minister Golda Meir, Deputy Defense Minister Shimon Peres and Israel’s Chief of Staff, Gen. Yitzhak Rabin. American Ambassador Walworth Barbour also attended the first talks today, as did Robert Komer and Earl Russell, the aides who accompanied Mr. Harriman to Israel.
Diplomatic sources here discounted reports that Mr. Harriman’s mission was to act as a mediator in the crisis between Israel and West Germany, caused by the latter country’s cancelation of arms shipments to Israel. Referring to a report about United States “good offices” purportedly emanating from State Department quarters, the sources here said they were not aware of any such intentions in the State Department.
Mr. Harriman said he was pleased to be in Israel again–he visited Israel in 1955, when he was New York Governor–and declared he would like to see at first hand the progress made in Israel since the 1955 visit. “There was profound respect in the United States for the accomplishments of the people of Israel,” he stated.
Mr. Harriman told the Israelis that these were “trying times” in the world and that the Middle East was not excluded from that. He expressed hope for cooperation with the Israel Government “now as in the past.”
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