Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D.Conn.) proposed here today that President-elect Jimmy Carter consider appointing Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger as a special envoy to the Middle East to secure an Arab-Israel peace settlement after the Carter Administration takes office in Washington.
Ribicoff offered his suggestion at a press conference at the end of a four-day visit by 13 .U.S. Senators in connection with the projected sale of a U.S. nuclear power plant to Israel. The group is to visit Jordan, Egypt and Iran after leaving Israel.
Both Ribicoff and Sen. Howard Baker Jr. (R.Tenn.), co-leaders of the Senate group, said that Israel’s refusal of their request to visit its nuclear power plant at Dimona would not affect the sale of nuclear power plants to this country.
“The issue is much more important than the question of one visit to Dimona,” Baker said. Sen. John Glenn (D.Ohio) said the first priority was the creation of a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. He said the time was ripe for such an agreement “because I would not want to see mushroom clouds over Tel Aviv, Cairo and Damascus.”
Ribicoff told reporters that he and his colleagues had asked Israeli officials several times if Israel had a nuclear weapons capacity but never received an answer. “Personally, I have no information whether Israel has the atom bomb,” he said.
REASON FOR THE KISSINGER GAMBIT
Ribicoff said he has been mulling over the possibility of a future role for Kissinger as a peace envoy to the Middle East for some time but had not discussed it with anyone. He said he thought it was essential to appoint Kissinger to such a mission because “it would be most unfortunate if time goes by with no new initiatives and the new Secretary of State will be too busy at first to deal with the Mideast.”
He said Kissinger was the only statesman who enjoyed the trust of all parties to the Middle East conflict. “Any other person besides Kissinger would need at least a year just to get to know the region’s leaders. I don’t know of any other person who could do the job better.” Ribicoff said.
Those of Ribicoff’s Senate colleagues attending the press conference supported the idea in principle but several were not sure that Kissinger would be better suited for such a mission than anyone else Carter might appoint. (In Washington, there was no immediate reaction from either Carter or Kissinger.)
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