Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger said today that he approved the dispatch of French troops to Lebanon as a peace-keeping force “if all factions want this” and also favored holding a round-table conference in Paris to resolve the Lebanese conflict. Kissinger stated his virtue after an hour-long meeting with President Valery Giscard d’Estaing at the Elysee Palace this morning. The French offer, earlier this month, to send troops to Lebanon, was rejected by all parties there.
Kissinger and Giscard discussed the Lebanese crisis at length, official sources here said. They said the Secretary was generally non-committal and stressed that it was up to the Lebanese themselves to settle their problems. Kissinger will go to Bonn Wednesday for talks with West German leaders and with Prime Minister John Vorster of South Africa who is visiting there. American sources here said they knew of no plans for Kissinger to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Yigal Allon who is due in West Germany this week.
(In Jerusalem yesterday, Allon told the Cabinet that there was no truth to reports that he will meet Kissinger or South African Premier John Vorster during his visit to West Germany. The rumors of a Vorster meeting were apparently spread by the Arabs, Allon said. The Foreign Minister is going to West Germany as the head of the Israeli delegation to the Joint Israel-West German Trade and Technology Committee which will hold its first session this week. He also intends to see Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.)
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