Kreisky Urges Step-by-step Approach

Chancellor Bruno Kreisky of Austria said here yesterday that the only “realistic” way to reach a solution in the Middle East was through “a step-by-step approach.” He said “the Geneva conference is important, but it is difficult to see how such a conference would obtain substantial results.”

Addressing a press conference here, Kreisky also said that the parties to the conflict must “go ahead” with the step-by-step method. He said that approach should be used not only between Israel and Egypt but also in other aspects of the Mideast conflict. “My absolute conviction is that there is a Palestinian problem,” Kreisky said in response to a question. “This is a central problem and it, too, should be solved step-by-step,” the Chancellor said, adding that the first step in such an effort should be found now.

Kreisky, who arrived in New York Monday to receive the peace prize of the International Rescue Committee, said, when he was asked if Austria would recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization, that his government had not yet been faced with that question but that if it was, “we will make very serious inquiries” before reaching a decision. He added that Austria would follow on that issue “countries that we respect,” seen by some to mean the United States.

On the issue of Soviet Jewish immigrants using Austria as a stopover on their way out of the USSR to Israel and other countries, he said such movement constituted “an individual traffic” now and that the borders of Austria were always open as “a country of asylum.” Kreisky met yesterday with representatives of Jewish organizations in New York but declined to discuss his talks with the representatives or to identify the Jewish leaders with whom he met.