Jarring Returning Unexpectedly to Un: to Consult with Big Four Envoys

Eyebrows were raised here at noon today when a United Nations spokesman announced that Dr. Gunnar V. Jarring, the UN’s special Middle East representative, was to arrive back in New York this evening. The spokesman reported that Dr. Jarring and Secretary General Kurt Waldheim had agreed in Geneva yesterday that the envoy’s mission continued to be “very useful,” but it was a fact that no Mideast principals were in New York today and none was immediately due.

Waldheim was still in Geneva, with no announced plans to return here; Israeli Ambassador Yosef Tekoah was in Israel and not due to return here until next weekend; and the arrival date of the new Egyptian ambassador, Esmat Abdel Maguid, was uncertain, with an Egyptian spokesman saying it might be around mid-March.

Israeli officials said Dr. Jarring would not be meeting with any Israeli representatives until Tekoah returned. The UN spokesman, asked to explain Dr. Jarring’s decision, said only that “this was left wide open pending the Secretary General’s conversations (in Geneva) with Ambassador Jarring after his visits to Egypt and Israel.” Dr. Jarring was last in New York Jan. 27, when he flew to Dakar, Senegal, for his talks with African leaders, after which he went to Cairo, Amman, Jerusalem and Geneva.

American officials here pointed out that Dr. Jarring, having conferred with Israeli and Egyptian leaders and with Waldheim in recent days, would use the next few days in New York for consultations with US, British, French and Soviet representatives. The Americans noted that the outgoing Egyptian ambassador Dr. Mohammed H. el-Zayyat, who has been promoted to Minister of State for Information, was still in New York this week.