State Department sources today portrayed the Soviet Mideast policy statement issued in Moscow as a propaganda device to penetrate deeper into the Arab world through exploitation of Arab differences with Israel and the West.
The Red warning was portrayed by U. S. officials as an obvious attempt to throw a monkey wrench into any peace plan the Tripartite conference night formulate. Officials viewed the warning with some gravity, it was considered by some to be the first official Russian claim to the Arab-Israel dispute as a field of direct Soviet interest.
Officials said that the Russian demand for advance notice of any allied action came with poor grace from a country which consulted nobody when it chose to pour arms into Egypt. If Mideast peace moves are restricted to the United Nations Security Council machinery, sources pointed out, the Soviets could use their veto to gain Arab favor. Because of the Soviet veto, it was indicated a plan for United Nations armed forces to enforce Arab-Israel peace was abandoned.
Government experts said the Eden-Eisenhower statement which attracted the Soviet counter-statement, was actually based on the six-year old tripartite formula and was really not a new factor.
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