Nixon Goes to Mideast June 11; First Stop Expected to Be Cairo

President Nixon will leave on a one-week trip to the Middle East next Tuesday visiting Egypt. Jordan, Saudi Arabia. Israel and Syria though not necessarily in that order the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned from informed sources today. He will be accompanied by Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, Egypt, where he will arrive June 11, will definitely be the first stop, the sources said but refused to confirm or deny that Israel will be the last country on Nixon’s Mideast itinerary.

The sources said that Nixon would return to Washington on June 18 after a stopover in Salzburg, probably for a meeting with Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky. The stopover is considered significant in light of unconfirmed reports that Kreisky has personally undertaken efforts to work out Palestinian participation in the Geneva Mideast peace conference when it resumes, possibly next month.

The sources told the JTA that Nixon would stay overnight in each country be visits. His visit to Syria will set a precedent inasmuch as no incumbent U.S. President has ever visited a country with which the U.S. has no formal diplomatic relations. Syria, which broke its ties with Washington during the 1967 Six-Day War, is the only country in that category on the President’s itinerary. There was speculation here that Nixon’s visit to Damascus may bring about the resumption of formal diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Syria, or at least upgrade the present interests section each country maintains in the other’s capital. Such upgrading preceded the exchange of ambassadors between Washington and Cairo earlier this year.

The White House indicated meanwhile that Nixon’s Middle East trip and itinerary would be announced tomorrow. Deputy Press Secretary Gerald Warren told newsmen that “We should have an announcement very soon, perhaps tomorrow,” on the President’s Mideast trip.