Rogers Will Confer with Egyptian Foreign Minister at United Nations

The State Department has confirmed that Secretary of State Rogers will meet with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Riad next week while both are attending the opening sessions of the UN General Assembly. Informed quarters indicated that the resumption of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Egypt is one of the matters that Mr. Rogers intends to raise.

Relations were severed by Egypt during the June, 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and the Nixon Administration holds that it is up to Egypt to propose their renewal. But diplomats here believe that it is unlikely at this time, the New York Times reported. They believe that the Nixon Administration’s Mideast policy has fallen far short of Egyptian expectations. The U.S. has gone ahead with the delivery of Phantom jets to Israel under a sales agreement concluded during the Johnson Administration. And Washington has not pressured Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories as the Arabs has hoped it would when the Nixon Administration took office last January.

According to sources here, Mr. Rogers views an exchange of ambassadors with Cairo as a symbol of reconciliation but President Gamel Abdel Nasser will demand a bigger diplomatic price for the gesture than the U.S. is willing to pay, the New York Times reported.

Arab leaders not directly involved in the Mideast crisis are reportedly trying to effect a reconciliation. They believe that the erosion of American influence in the Middle East and the Soviet ascendancy in the area are tragic and unnecessary. But they detect no sign that the Nixon Administration is departing from what they consider to be America’s pro-Israel policy, the Times said. After meeting with Mr. Riad, Mr. Rogers will meet Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul Monem Rifai and with Israeli Premier Golda Meir.