There are no differences in principle between the United States and Israel on the question of a final settlement of the Middle East conflict. The two countries differ only on methods by which a settlement can be reached, Government officials said at a press conference here tonight.
The subject was brought up in questions relating to press interviews given here by Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Maj. Gen. Itzhak Rabin, who was in Jerusalem last week for consultations. The Government officials said that the differences between the U.S. and Israel must be considered in perspective. The United States Government has made it clear that it believes peace can come only through negotiations which must lead to a signed agreement between the two sides, they said. Israel regards direct negotiations as a matter of principle, according to Foreign Minister Abba Eban in an interview with the Jerusalem Post last Friday. Ambassador Rabin said, in interviews published in the Hebrew dailies Haaretz and Davar, the same day, that the U.S. considers the type of negotiations only a technically.
(In Washington today it was reported that the U.S. Government has advised Israeli authorities that it regards the islands of Senator and Tiran in the Strait of Tiran as the lawful possessions of Saudi Arabia and Israel’s continued occupation of them as illegal. The islands, which command the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba and Israel’s port of Eilat, were captured by Israeli forces in last June’s war to break the Egyptian blockade of the gulf. The islands were “loaned” to Egypt by Saudi Arabia in the 1950s for the purpose of blockading Israel.)
LEBANON ASKS US TO PRESS FOR PEACE FORMULA AVOIDING FACE-TO-FACE TALKS
Lebanese Foreign Minister Found Butrous urged Secretary of State Dean Rusk to press Israel to accept a Middle East peace formula that does not involve direct negotiations, it was reliably reported here today. The Lebanese diplomat met with Mr. Rusk for lunch and reportedly expressed Lebanon’s concern over Israeli policies. He was said to have underscored the urgency of an Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories to avert a new war. Mr. Butrous also met with Undersecretary of State Eugene Rostow and Assistant Secretary Lucius Battle.
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