‘nations’ & ‘parties’ in the Mideast

The White House has declined to clarify President Ford’s remarks last Thursday night in which he told a press conference in Phoenix, Arizona, that the U.S. is “trying to get the Israelis to negotiate a settlement or additional settlements with the Egyptians and other Arab nations,” and then said that Israel should negotiate with the Egyptians and “other Arab parties.”

To some, the phrase “other Arab parties” implied the inclusion of the Palestine Liberation Organization. This implication was suggested by Ford’s statement last month at a press conference in Washington where he said that negotiations should be held between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Syria and “Jordan or the PLO.” Both the White House and the State Department said at that time that the U.S. has not changed its attitude toward the PLO. But even then there were some in Washington who felt that the reference to the PLO was merely premature rather than a slip of the tongue or an imprecise formulation.

White House press secretary Ronald Nessen, asked by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to clarify Ford’s Phoenix remarks, replied that he did not know why the President referred to both “nations” and “parties.” He said he would not go beyond Ford’s remarks, but stated that the President’s comment was “an excellent summation of U.S. policy in the area” and that the U.S. “is leaving the decision as to who will be the negotiators to the parties involved,”

MIDEAST SITUATION POTENTIALLY SERIOUS

Ford, meanwhile, described the Middle East situation as potentially very serious in an interview published today in U.S. News and World Report magazine, and said a peaceful solution was “imperative.” The President said, “It ought to be obvious to everybody that we cannot go-on indefinitely with the very delicate circumstances that exist between Israel and Egypt, Israel and Jordan, Israel and Syria–or fail to take into account the legitimate interests of the Palestinian people,” In addition, he said, “We have the problem of the potentiality that if there were a new confrontation between the Israelis and Arabs, we could face the possibility of another oil embargo and the United States and the Soviet Union could also become somehow involve.”

At a news conference here last Thursday, Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger denied that there was any contingency plan for the U.S. to enter a new Arab-Israeli war should such an outbreak occur, though he indicated that this might change if another outside power intervened, “The U.S. attitude will be what it was in previous wars to avoid conflict and bring it to as rapid an end as possible if there is war,” the Secretary said. He added, however, that “It is the clear U.S. intention–unless there are outside interventions–to confine its role to what it has been.”

The press conference was called as a briefing on Ford’s 10-day visit to the Far East, which will culminate Nov. 25 in a summit meeting with Soviet Communist Party Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev at Vladivostock where the Mideast is expected to receive high priority consideration. But the questions focussed mainly on the deteriorating Middle East situation.

ARAFAT’S SPEECH NOT MODERATE

Referring to another Middle East matter. Kissinger told a press conference Friday that the U.S. would not “give advice” to Israel on whether it should enter negotiations with the PLO. He described Arafat’s UN speech as not providing “a particularly moderate position.” He said that as the U.S. read it. Arafat “calls for a state which did not include Israel. We do not consider this a particularly moderate position.”

Asked if the U.S. considered it “inevitable” for Israel to deal with the PLO. Kissinger said the Ford Administration view has not changed. It still prefers that the future of the West Bank is settled between Israel and Jordan. “As to any other parties that might negotiate, this is entirely a decision for Israel to make and for any other parties that might be involved,” he said, adding that “It is not a matter on which the U.S. will give advice.”

Meanwhile, a UN spokesman in New York reported that Secretary General Kurt Waldheim had been in touch with Kissinger by telephone and had also conferred with the Soviet, French, British, Syrian and Egyptian diplomats at the UN and with Israeli Ambassador Yosef Tekoah. He reported that Waldheim had expressed concern over the Middle East situation and had cancelled plans to visit his country home in Connecticut over the weekend in order to remain in closer touch with developments.