Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger said at a press conference here today that the U.S. is studying the matter of guarantees to Israel in the context of an overall Middle East peace settlement because it was “axiomatic” that a final settlement had to have some sort of guarantees.
The Secretary also stressed that the issues of aid to Israel and aid to Cambodia and South Vietnam were unrelated; said that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was prepared to offer Israel quid pro quo in a second stage Sinai settlement; and characterized as “a hopeful sign” Syrian President Hafez Assad’s statement in Newsweek magazine that he would sign a formal peace treaty with Israel if certain conditions were fulfilled.
In what may be his last press conference before returning to the Middle East early next month for another round of step-by-step diplomacy, Kissinger touched on all of the immediate issues relating to that region and on some longer range possibilities. He said the U.S. “will be prepared to discuss” a limitation of arms shipments to the Middle East as part of a final settlement and that he thought the Soviet Union was prepared to do the same in that context, but not at present.
He said, in reply to questions, that he saw “no evidence that Congress is applying a harder look at military aid for Israel,” notwithstanding its reluctance to agree to the Ford Administration’s request for more aid to Cambodia and South Vietnam. “I don’t want to be put in a position in which I am asserting that the lessons of Vietnam will be applied to other areas,” Kissinger said. He added that he was not bringing Southeast Asia and Israel “into a relationship,”
VIEWS ASSAD’S STATEMENT AS HELPFUL
The Secretary’s remarks on what he deemed was “a major step forward” in Syria’s attitude toward a Middle East settlement were based on statements by Assad quoted in an interview published in Newsweek magazine yesterday. The Syrian leader said he would sign a formal peace treaty with Israel if the latter withdrew from all Arab territories it occupied in 1967 and agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Although those demands are unacceptable to Israel, Kissinger said he thought Assad’s statement was helpful to his step-by-step diplomacy, He gave no indication that he had elicited a similar statement from the Syrian President when they met in Damascus two weeks ago, nor was there any evidence here that what Assad told Newsweek editor Arnaud de Borchgrave was published in Arabic in the Middle East.
The Secretary, nevertheless, appeared to put great stock in Syria’s “step forward.” He recalled that when he visited Damascus the first time in 1973 from Israel, Syrian newspapers reported that he had arrived “from occupied territory–Tel Aviv.”
RE-ENFORCEMENT, NOT A SUBSTITUTE
Kissinger asserted that a Mideast “peace, to be lasting, must involve all fronts and an agreed settlement,” adding, “I am sure Israel shares this view.” He observed that any agreement must be acceptable to both parties, but “direct and individual assurances might be left to negotiations.”
He said that Israel has to be the judge of an adequate arrangement. Asked whether an Israeli-Egyptian understanding is possible, inasmuch as Israel has refused to give up additional territory without a quid pro quo, and whether President Sadat agreed to this, Kissinger replied that in view of the fact that he is returning to the Middle East next month, “the answer is yes.”
Kissinger emphasized that U.S. guarantees to Israel would not be a substitute for a final settlement but “a re-enforcement” of one that is concluded. He said that at present it “does not exist” with regard to the nature of the guarantees or commitments to Israel and has not been taken up with the Israelis, Nevertheless, Kissinger listed three possible frameworks: A joint U.S.-Soviet guarantee; a settlement guaranteed by the UN Security Council; or a unilateral American guarantee. He confirmed that the U.S. is studying the problem.
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