Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin left for Washington this morning following a brief leave in Israel during which he reportedly gave Premier Golda Meir an optimistic appraisal of the United States position on a Middle East settlement. In addition to his consultations with Mrs. Meir, Rabin had a lengthy meeting Friday with Foreign Minister Abba Eban and Ambassador-designate Simha Dinitz who will succeed him in Washington in mid-March.
Rabin is said to have told Premier Meir that President Nixon does not expect any new proposals from her when they meet in Washington March 1 and does not expect any major changes in Israel’s position. He maintained that contrary to the belief expressed in some quarters, Nixon has not changed his approach to the Middle East problem since his re-election. The U.S. has recently reaffirmed its doctrine agreed on with Israel, that there can be no Israeli withdrawal from the administered territories prior to a peace settlement.
The Americans firmly believe in peace by stages, Rabin reportedly told Mrs. Meir. He said Nixon and his advisors may well offer the Israeli leader some suggestions but that was not the same as pressure, Rabin emphasized.
HUSSEIN TO GET LITTLE FROM NIXON
The Israeli envoy did not expect radical changes in Egypt’s position. He reportedly expressed the view that President Anwar Sadat would probably await the outcome of Soviet Communist Party Secretary Leonid Brezhnev’s, visit to Washington later this year before making any moves. He said that King Hussein of Jordan who is scheduled to meet President Nixon in Washington Tuesday may secure more U.S. military and economic assistance for his country but little else.
Rabin told reporters at the airport before his departure today that he expected no dramatic developments to emerge from the Hussein-Nixon meeting. He said the Jordanian ruler had decided to rejoin the Eastern Front against Israel in order to appear in Washington as a spokesman for all of the Arab states, not just Jordan.
He said there was little prospect of an advance toward a bilateral settlement between Israel and Jordan at this time because of Hussein’s insistence that Jordan control parts of Jerusalem. The Israeli envoy described Hussein’s recent proposal for a meeting of the religious leaders of the three major faiths to discuss the problem of Jerusalem as “a clear propaganda trick.” He said it might elicit a favorable response in the U.S. but, he added, “every trick does not bear fruit.”
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