The Nixon administration was seen today in diplomatic circles as holding to its positions on the Middle East following King Hussein’s visit with the President last week and in advance of Israeli Premier Golda Meir’s meeting with Nixon at the White House on March 1.
This assessment was made following remarks by John Scall, the new American Ambassador to the United Nations on ABC-TV “Issues and Answers,” Scali spoke of a “new initiative” by the U.S. as being in the making but indicated it would be based on the policy expressed in the past by both Nixon and Secretary of State William P. Rogers.
Asked to comment on the reports that Nixon would take initiatives in the Middle East after the cease-fire in Vietnam, Scall, making his first major public appearance since his appointment as Ambassador, observed that Nixon had “concluded some far-reaching talks about this part of the world” with Hussein and that he soon will discuss the issues with Mrs. Meri. These discussions, Scali added, are “all part of a broad-sweep kind of review which is underway, and at some appropriate moment I am sure that there will be a new initiative.”
NOT GOING BEYOND ROGERS’ VIEW
Furthermore, Scali said, “let us keep in mind” that the U.S. “continues to support the UN resolution (242) of Nov. 1967 as the basis for a settlement and believes it offers the kind of framework for a multinational guarantee which will be indispensable for peace.”
The envoy also asserted that it is important to recognize “that neither the United States, the United Nations nor any outside force can impose a peace on the Middle East and what is necessary is the beginning of a constructive, serious negotiating process between the parties. We stand ready to assist if they desire a stage-by-stage approach and we will do our best to assist the parties themselves to talk directly or indirectly on this problem where the differences are now so wide and so very, very deep.”
A high State Department source commenting to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on the remarks by Scali, who was an ABC diplomatic commentator before joining the White House staff more than a year ago, said he was “reasonably certain” that the Ambassador was not going beyond Rogers’ views three weeks ago. In an address in New York at a dinner honoring Israeli Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin, Rogers emphasized that an interim agreement for reopening the Suez Canal appeared to be the best first step towards a full settlement.
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