Shifts in the State Department’s high command are expected to be announced within a few days that would put an Arabist. Undersecretary for Political Affairs William Porter, at the head of the U.S. delegation to an Arab-Israeli peace conference and elevate Joseph J. Sisco, the Department’s present foremost Middle East expert, to become Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s political right arm.
Department spokesman George Vest seemed to confirm these and other reported personnel movements at the top of American foreign affairs when he was asked about the reports. Vest said he expected no announcements “in the next couple of days” but could not say they would not take place within a week or so.
Sisco, 54, has been Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs since his appointment by President Nixon in Feb. 1969. He is slated to become Undersecretary for Political Affairs replacing Porter who has been in that job only since last Feb. Porter, 59, gained a reputation as a negotiator by his representation of the U.S. in the prolonged Paris talks to settle the Vietnam War. He is expected to lead the American group to the conference in Geneva.
Porter, a native of England, served for more than 15 years in Arab areas. Between 1937-1946 he was on assignments in Baghdad, Beirut and Damascus. In that period he also served for a few months in Jerusalem when it was in Arab hands. In 1949 he was named Consul General in Algiers and three years later was elevated to be Ambassador to that country. In 1965 he left to become Deputy Ambassador in Saigon where he stayed until he was assigned to the Paris peace talks in 1971.
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