Israel is prepaying to take the offensive toward reactivating the Jarring peace mission by pressing the United Nations envoy to adopt a formula that can lead to resumption of talks, informed sources said here today. The first step will be to ask Dr. Gunnar V. Jarring in effect to dissociate himself specifically from the Egyptian-inspired General Assembly resolution of last Dec. which called on Israel to make an affirmative reply to his aide memoire of Feb. 8,1971 asking Israel for a commitment to withdraw prior to peace negotiations.
Dr. Jarring will be asked to make this repudiation in the form of a letter to Foreign Minister Abba Eban stating that he is not bound by the General Assembly’s resolution but solely by the Security Council Resolution 242 of Nov. 22,1967 from which his peace mission derives its mandate, the sources said.
Dr. Jarring will also be asked by Israel to suggest an agenda for the resumption of his mission that does not contain reference to his Feb. 8 memo. It is believed here that Dr. Jarring himself may feel that his demand of a year ago need not stand in the way of a resumption of his peace mission at this time and that other subjects could be brought up first. Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Ambassador Yosef Tekoah, left yesterday for New York and is expected to resume contact with Dr. Jarring along these lines in the next few days.
(In Washington, meanwhile, the US State Department indicated that Dr. Jarring is acting in accordance with a formula that does not include the American initiative to promote interim talks between Israel and Egypt aimed at reopening the Suez Canal. State Department spokesman Charles Bray said Friday that the US “has always envisaged that insofar as an interim agreement is concerned, it is a US initiative.” Asked whether the US has pursued the interim idea with Egypt. Bray said he would answer that “obliquely” by pointing out that the new American representative in Cairo. Joseph N. Greene, had met with the Egyptian Foreign Minister shortly after his arrival there.)
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