The London Observer reported from Moscow today that Soviet Russia is looking for a political solution of the Middle East conflict and is working in concert with the more model a Arab leadership to bring Israel around to accepting a solution that will insure its safely in return for a troop withdrawal from occupied areas and other measures. The Observer made this assessment in comments on United Nations peace envoy Ambassador Gunnar V. Jarring’s talks in Moscow this week with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Deputy Foreign Minister Vastly Kuznetsov. Mr. Kuznetsov headed the Soviet delegation at the last session of the UN General Assembly.
The London Times reported today that Dr. Jarring, who is officially on vacation, discussed the Middle East situation in talks with the Soviet diplomats. Dr. Jarring is Sweden’s Ambassador to Russia but was given a leave of absence to take up the Middle East peace-seeking mission assigned to him by Secretary General U Thant last year. He met with Israel’s Foreign Minister Abba Eban in The Hague last week and was visited in Stockholm earlier by Egyptian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Rind.
According to the Observer, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin and Foreign Minister Gromyko are convinced that the key to a Middle East solution lies in Washington, not Israel, and “calculate that the United States will not continue their estrangement from the Arabs indefinitely” but “may exercise gentle pressure on Tel Aviv to come to terms as soon as the American Presidential elections are over.”
The Observer reported that Russia wants to maintain the political prestige and ascendency in the Middle East which they won as a by-product of the Arab-Israel war last June but “are showing signs of impatience with inter-Arab disputes.” The paper said that the Russians are making a strong effort to bring about unity in the Arab camp. What they fear most at present is the danger of the extinction of left-wing Arab regimes under right-wing pressure, the Observer said. In response to this threat, they are doing all they can to shore up the left-wing regimes, are striving to bring the warring factions together and are working with the more moderate Arabs for a settlement with Israel, according to the paper.
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