President Reagan reiterated last week that if the Soviet Union Wants to participate in the Middle East peace process, it must “resume diplomatic relations with the State of Israel.”
Reagan, in a pre-summit interview Thursday with television journalists from Europe and Japan, also stressed that the Palestine Liberation Organization cannot represent the Palestinians in negotiations with Israel since the PLO “refuses to recognize the right of Israel to exist as a nation.”
The president expressed optimism about the chances for acceptance of Secretary of State George Shultz’s proposals on negotiations between Israel and a Jordanian-Arab delegation. “I believe there is a desire in the Middle East to settle once and for all what is still technically a state of war between the Arab nations and Israel,” he said.
Reagan did not indicate whether he would press the Soviets to accept the Shultz initiative in his talks with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow, which begin May 29.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, following his 30-minute meeting with Reagan last week, said the summit was the next stage in the peace process. Peres said he did not expect an agreement in Moscow, but expressed hope that the talks would pave the way for eventual Soviet support for Shultz’s proposals.
Israeli Premier Yitzhak Shamir opposes the Shultz plan for an international conference on the grounds that it would lead to pressure on Israel from the Soviet Union and the Arab countries. Peres stressed in Washington that while Israel does not need such a conference, it is the only way to bring Jordan into negotiations.
CONFERENCE WOULD ‘GIVE ADVICE’
Reagan reiterated Thursday that “We’ve made it plain” that the United States wants an international conference not “to dictate a settlement, but to be helpful if we can; to give advice and to make proposals that might help them arrive at a fair and just peace.”
the Soviet Union, however, wants an international conference that would actually negotiate the terms of a settlement.
On the issue of human rights, Ragan said he values the Helsinki Accords “very much.” He is scheduled to speak Friday on the same stage in the Finnish capital where the accords were signed in 1975.
he said his main concern is “that there has not been a complete keeping of those pledges in that agreement” by the Soviet Union, “in recognizing the fundamental right of people to leave a country, worship as they will, and so forth.”
He did not specifically mention the issue of Soviet Jewry. However, both Reagan and Shultz have personally pledged to Jewish leaders that they will press this issue in Moscow as they have at the three previous summits.
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