Kissinger Gives Israel List of 65 Pows & Syrian Commitment to Permit Red Cross Visits to Pows Starti

Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger brought from Damascus today a list of names of 65 Israeli prisoners of war and a Syrian commitment to permit Red Cross visits to the POWs starting March 1, thus paving the way for the start of talks on Syrian-Israeli disengagement of forces. (In Washington, President Nixon issued a statement this afternoon announcing that the list of names was being transmitted by Kissinger to Israeli government officials along with Syria’s agreement to permit Red Cross visits. Nixon’s statement also said that the Israeli government would give its ideas on disengagement to Kissinger for transmittal to Syria and that Kissinger “will personally take the ideas to Damascus.” It was also reported in Washington today that Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko plans to visit both Cairo and Damascus and that there was a possibility that Kissinger may meet Gromyko in Damascus.)

It was reliably reported in Jerusalem that Kissinger also presented to Israeli officials some general ideas on disengagement given to him yesterday by Syrian President Hafez Assad in Damascus. General satisfaction throughout Israel that the names had been disclosed and on the Syrian agreement on Red Cross visits was tempered by fears that the list of 65 names of POWs was incomplete. Israeli sources had estimated the number of POWs was as high as 120, an estimate later reduced to 80, which would leave at least 15 Israeli POWs unaccounted for in the Syrian list handed to Kissinger. Observers here noted that Israel had agreed to such a pattern of settlement on the POWs when the United States first suggested it two weeks ago. Israeli officials indicated then that Israel would agree to a small time lapse between the Red Cross visits to the POWs and the start of substantive disengagement talks.

The Kissinger settlement satisfied Israel’s preconditions and saved face for Syria which can claim that the talks started today when Kissinger transmitted to Israeli officials Assad’s general ideas on disengagement. Israel’s position is that the talks will actually start on Friday, when Kissinger is due back here, after the POWs have been visited. Syria had rejected the U.S. proposal, contending that the Israeli demands on the POW issue should be resolved as part of the disengagement talks. Kissinger said, when he arrived at the airport, that “I believe we made good progress” in Damascus “on some of Israel’s most urgent concerns.”

Prime Minister Golda Meir broke off her talks on efforts to form a new coalition government, to meet with Kissinger. Later she went on radio and television to report on the status of the disengagement talks. (See separate story) Kissinger briefed Mrs. Meir on his talks in Damascus and then met with other members of Israel’s negotiating team and with Chief of Staff Gen. David Elazar. Israeli officials have said that an exchange of prisoners is the first topic it wants to discuss. Israel holds 402 captured Syrian soldiers, including more than 40 officers and a number of Iraqis and Moroccans who fought with Syria.

The observers said that Kissinger’s goal on his current Mideast visit was to establish a negotiating framework in which disengagement terms would be worked out. The framework which Kissinger himself reportedly considers would be most acceptable to Syria is a continuation of the Egyptian-Israeli military group meetings at Geneva. Syrian officers would join this group and conduct, together with the Egyptians, negotiations on disengagement. Beyond the prisoner exchange is the wider question of the extent to which Israel will withdraw from its positions in Syria and how this will be carried out. How and when Syria-Israeli talks might be resumed in Geneva is one of the topics Kissinger is expected to discuss tomorrow in Cairo with President Sadat. Kissinger is due back in Jerusalem Friday for more talks and then is scheduled to visit Damascus again Friday with Israeli proposals for next steps.

U.S. officials here said they were aware that Israel-Syrian disengagement will probably be much harder to negotiate than Israel-Egyptian disengagement was. The officials cited much more powerful and complex internal pressures influencing both the Israeli and the Syrian governments than was the case during the Israel-Egypt negotiations. Israel, they said, is far more reluctant to return stretches of Golan territory than the strip of western Sinai–because of the Golan’s proximity to Israeli villages and settlements. The Syrian regime is under pressure from Baathist hardliners to settle for nothing less than the immediate return of at least part of the pre-1973 Golan. Israel’s leaders have dismissed this notion as unthinkable. Premier Meir has said this would mean awarding Syria a “bonus” for attacking Israel on Yom Kippur and being driven back. The officials said they prefer to disregard–or minimize the importance–of public statements by both sides prior to this current trip. They recalled that Israel’s and Egypt’s initial public positions before the disengagement talks in the south were widely divergent–from each other and from each side’s ultimate position when the agreement was reached.

On Saturday, Kissinger is due to visit Saudi Arabia and possibly Jordan. The U.S. observers say the visits to Egypt and to Saudia are to be seen in the context of Washington’s ongoing effort to improve ties with these states. There was speculation earlier that President Anwar Sadat and Kissinger would announce Friday the formal reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. But U.S. officials have pointed out that there was no real hurry with this since de facto diplomatic ties have been functioning satisfactorily since Jan. Kissinger will probably discuss with the Egyptians the American offers of technical assistance in reopening the Suez Canal. A U.S. Navy team of experts has been making surveys at the southern end of the canal since early this week. Kissinger will also brief Sadat and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy on his talks in Damascus and Jerusalem, since Syria apparently wants Egypt kept actively in the picture. The Secretary and his party will return home via Bonn on Sunday and Brussels on Monday where Kissinger will report to the NATO Council on his progress in the Middle East.