Kissinger Says U.S. Will Stand by Its Mideast Commitments; Step-by-step Process is Finished

The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 26-6 today to go into executive session to hear Secretary of State Henry A, Kissinger’s report on the break-down of the negotiations he had been conducting for a second-stage Israeli-Egyptian agreement in Sinai and the future outlook in the Middle East. Kissinger had specifically requested that the committee session be hold behind closed doors because of the delicacy of the situation in the Middle East resulting from the collapse of the second-stage talks and the assassination today of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.

Before the room was cleared of spectators, however, Kissinger told the committee that America will stand by its commitments, will work for any reasonable solution of the Middle East crisis and would consult with other nations. “The U.S. cannot wash its hands of the problem,” the Secretary stated. He conceded, however, that “the step-by-step process no longer can be pursued, at least in the same pattern.”

He said that the settlement process in the Middle East will now be enlarged and the Middle East problem will go “from a local to a global basis and from bilateral to multi-lateral” negotiations. While Kissinger did not elaborate on this in the public portion of his testimony, he was believed in some quarters to be alluding to the involvement of the Soviet Union and possibly even the People’s Republic of China in a Middle East peace-making process.

Kissinger told the committee that now is “not a time to assess blame on any party in the negotiations” for the failure of the negotiations. He repeated that “all parties made a serious effort” but “for a variety of reasons…did not take the final step to make agreement possible.”

The roll-call vote to shut off public discussion by the Foreign Affairs Committee was taken on a motion by Rep. Leo Ryan (D. Calif.) after Rep. William Broomfield (R. Mich,) urged a closed session which the State Department had, in fact, requested yesterday. Committee chairman Thomas Morgan (D. Pa.) polled the 32 committee members present. The six who voted against a closed hearing were Reps. Benjamin Rosenthal (D.NY); Robert Nix (D.Pa.); Donald Fraser (D. Minn.); Lester Wolfe (D. NY); Mike Harrington (D. Mass.); and Don Bonker (D. Wash,).

RAPS STATEMENTS BLAMING ISRAEL

Rosenthal objected bitterly to the out-off of public discussion “We are on the verge of a national debate concerning the Administration’s reassessment of policy in the Middle East,” he said adding that what has caused this can be attributed to statements of the Secretary. Reading from dispatchers in today’s New York Times and Washington Post, Rosenthal charged that while the Administration was insisting in public that it was not assessing blame for the breakdown of the second-stage talks, privately it was attributing responsibility to the “short-sighted” attitude of Israel.

Alluding to press reports that U.S. officials on Kissinger’s plane returning from the Middle East left the impression that Israel brought the blame for the breakdown on itself. Rosenthal observed that “The American public is being told Israel is responsible for the breakdown of negotiations. In a large sense, the damage has already been done.” He decried the fact that “one party gets the advantage reaching the media and the American public.”

Ryan said, however, that it was “a good idea for us to question the Secretary on what he said and the President said in executive session at this time.” He said “changes are necessary in U.S. policy because changes are occurring.” Broomfield said “The President is not casting blame on any of the parties but is pressing for new talks.” He told Kissinger that he hoped the House would join the Senate in “saluting your efforts in the Middle East.”

Kissinger told the committee members that the foreign policy of the U.S. “cannot be a purely partisan effort and the Administration will cooperate fully in developing a bi-partisan, indeed a non-partisan policy.”