Premier Golda Meir said tonight that the only way Israel and the Arab states can reach a peace settlement is if each side recognizes that the other has “essential needs.” But she said she doubted that the Arabs will take that line. Mrs. Meir made the remark in the course of a political speech here on the eve of the Geneva peace conference. She said she anticipated long and tiring negotiations and seemed skeptical of their outcome.
With the peace conference opening only five days away, the Premier said Israel’s participation depended upon many “ifs” but did not specify what they were. She implied in fact that she was still not sure that the Genan conference will take place. “If we reach negotiations and if there is a conference and if we do go there we shall have to adopt a line that says the only way to reach a peace contract is to recognize that both parties have essential needs,” she said.
The Premier stated that during the Geneva conference Israel may be forced to say “no” to her best friend, the United States. She said that at present there was no pressure on Israel. But she disclosed that on her visit to Washington in Oct. she had a “difficult and severe argument” with a person whose identity she would not reveal.
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