A serious rift has developed between Premier Pierre Mauroy and Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson over French policy in the Middle East. Mauroy, French political sources say, is highly upset by Cheysson’s recent pro-Palestinian declaration and has asked President Francois Mitterrand to drop him from the government at the first feasible opportunity.
Cheysson said last weekend, while on an official visit to Abu Dhabi, that a Palestinian state should be set up on the West Bank. The Minister also said that the Palestine Liberation Organization is best suited to represent the Palestinians in any future negotiations.
Israel energetically refuses even to contemplate such a possibility and Cheysson’s statements, one week before Mitterrand’s trip to Israel, provoked a major row in French political circles, including the Cabinet itself.
Official spokesmen today tried to play down the gravity of the interministerial rift but circles close to the government said Mauroy plans to ask Mitterrand to arbitrate his differences with Cheysson.
AN UNTIMELY MOMENT
The row was caused less by differences of opinion between the two men than by the Premier’s conviction that Cheysson had chosen a most untimely moment to make these views known. Mauroy found out about the Foreign Minister’s declarations from wire services dispatches while on an official visit to Tunisia.
Several marginal French Jewish organizations have protested against Cheysson’s declarations but the Israel Embassy in Paris and the major Jewish communal organizations have refused to comment.
Both Israel and the major Jewish bodies are determined not to do anything liable to spoil Mitterrand’s trip next week to Israel or mar the friendly climate and the chances to improve Franco-Israeli relations. The Representative Council of Major Jewish Organizations in France said it will only issue a message of good will on the eve of Mitterrand’s trip.
The Elysee Palace stressed that French policy is laid down by the President only and that Mitterrand will make his stand clear during his stay in Israel and especially during his address to the Knesset March 4.
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