Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger denied today that the Ford Administration was considering sharp cuts in aid to Israel and said Israel had nothing to fear from President Ford’s order for a formal reassessment of American policy in the Middle East.
Emerging from a closed session of the House Foreign Affairs Committee where he had just given the committee members a detailed briefing on the latest Mideast developments and the outlook for the future in that region, Kissinger told reporters: “Our policy of reassessment is directed toward developing the best policy of peace in the Middle East and Israel can’t possibly have anything to fear from an attempt to bring peace in the Middle East.”
Asked if he feared that sharp cuts in aid to Israel would provoke another clash with Congress which has already opposed Administration policies in Indo-China and Cyprus, Kissinger replied, “Nobody said anything about sharply cutting aid to Israel.”
The issue of aid to Israel, which has requested $2.5 billion from the U.S. for the next fiscal year, arose following the collapse of Kissinger’s latest efforts. The announcement that Ford has ordered a full-scale reassessment of U.S. policy in the Middle East was regarded in some Congressional quarters as a veiled threat that aid might be withheld from Israel unless it adopted a more flexible position in peace negotiations. The reassessment was announced after the breakdown of talks for which the Ford Administration reportedly holds Israel mainly responsible.
NOTE ASSIGNING BLAME
But the State Department re-emphasized today that it was not assigning blame to either side for the failure of the second-stage talks. Department spokesman Robert Anderson made that point today after reports circulated here that Kissinger had informed governments in the Middle East that he gave full credit to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat for seeking a compromise but was silent on Israel’s position.
According to a report in the Washington Post. Kissinger sent the message to 30 countries “in the Middle East region” explaining the breakdown in very general terms. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency asked the State Department whether any part of that report was true. Anderson replied that Kissinger did communicate with a number of governments, but said, “I repeat, there is no question of placing blame on either side” and that “both sides made a serious effort” for a compromise.
When Anderson was pressed to say whether the message actually did give credit to Sadat and was silent on Israel, he said he could not confirm that point one way or another. When he was asked, “Then that part is wrong?” he replied, “I would assume so.” Kissinger was to meet late this afternoon with Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz and with the Egyptian envoy, Ashraf Ghorbal. Anderson said the meeting with the envoys was at their request.
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