Reagan Administration Will Try to Persuade Shamir to Consider an International Peace Conference

The Reagan Administration will try to persuade Israeli Premier Yitzhak Shamir, who arrived in Washington Tuesday, to consider an international conference if it would lead to direct negotiations.

“The United States believes it is important to explore all possible approaches to direct negotiations, to see whether any of these, including an international conference, would lead immediately to direct negotiations,” a senior Administration official said Tuesday.

Shamir said last Thursday in Israel that he will try to dissuade the U.S. from considering an international conference, a position in which he differs with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres with whom he traded jobs last October as part of the national unity government agreement.

This is Shamir’s first visit to Washington since becoming Premier, although he was here several times as Foreign Minister. His last visit as Premier under the old Likud government was in November 1983.

The Administration official, briefing reporters on the Shamir visit, called him an “old friend” who was here to renew his “already close personal relationship” with President Reagan and Secretary of State George Shultz.

TOPICS OF DISCUSSION

Shamir met with Shultz shortly after his arrival and then held a second meeting with Shultz in the afternoon. He is scheduled to have a breakfast meeting with Shultz Wednesday before going to the White House for a meeting and working lunch with Reagan.

The U.S. official said topics of discussions during Shamir’s three-day visit here include U.S.-Israel relations, the peace process, the Israeli economy, Soviet Jewry and international terrorism.

The Iran arms deal and the case of Jonathan Pollard, the former civilian Navy employee who has confessed to spying for Israel, are expected to come up, but neither will be “an important focus of the discussions,” the official stressed.

He said the U.S. “understands” the positions of both Shamir and King Hussein of Jordan on an international conference. Hussein has said that he needs an international conference as an “umbrella” for talks with Israel.

Shamir charged last week that an international conference is an “Arab-Soviet idea” where Israel would be isolated and subject to demands that it return to its 1967 border.

VIEWS ON AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

State Department deputy spokesman Phyllis Oakley said Friday that any international conference “would have to be agreed to by the parties themselves. Whatever the format it should lead immediately to direct negotiations and should not interfere with those negotiations.”

This position was reaffirmed by the Administration official Tuesday. “We are convinced that face-to-face discussions on the hard issue of the Arab-Israeli conflict and proposals for their peaceful resolution is the only way to achieve a peace that will be lasting and fair to all the parties,” he said.

Peres has argued that an international conference is the only way to bring Jordan into the negotiations. However, as for Hussein’s demand that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council participate, Peres has stressed that the Soviet Union could not participate in Mideast peace talks until it restores diplomatic relations with Israel and allows Soviet Jews to freely emigrate.

This is the same position taken by the U.S. and reconfirmed by the Administration official Tuesday.

However, he stressed that a Jordanian delegation to negotiations with Israel would have to include Palestinians. He noted that the makeup of the Palestinian representatives is one of the issues being discussed. Israel has made it clear it will not talk to members of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The official noted that Shamir, as have previous Israeli leaders, is expected to urge the Administration to make it mandatory that Soviet Jewish emigrants go directly to Israel and not be free to immigrate to the U.S. But the official said the U.S. still supports the position of “freedom of choice.”

The official confirmed that Israel, like Japan and Australia, has been given the status of “official major non-NATO ally.” This will allow Israel to bid on Defense Department research and development contracts. Given Israel’s “high technological capabilities” it should be in a “good position to compete” for these contracts, the official said.