Israeli Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir returns to Washington tomorrow for another meeting with Secretary of State George Shultz, it was learned here today. Shamir, who met with Shultz last week, will be briefed on meetings Lebanese President Amin Gemayel held with President Reagan and other members of the Administration here yesterday.
State Department spokesman John Hughes stressed today that the U.S. basically “listened” during the talks with Shamir and Gemayel the past week on their governments’ ideas for the withdrawal of Israeli and Syrian troops and Palestine Liberation Organization forces from Lebanon He said the U.S. will now be “pulling together, digesting” these ideas for analysis and preparation for the negotiations on withdrawal which will take place in the Middle East.
Morris Draper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East and South Asian Affairs, who is the U.S. special envoy for the Lebanese situation, is scheduled to return to the Mideast late this week for the negotiations.
Up to today, State Department officials have stressed that the briefing for Shamir, who is stopping in the U.S. on his way back to Israel from Costa Rica, would be held in New York. Administration spokesmen said that they would be busy with the Arab League delegation which arrived here today for talks with Reagan on Friday. But it was learned that Shamir wanted to talk directly to Shultz and not a lesser Department official.
ARAB LEAGUE DELEGATION ARRIVING IN THE CAPITAL
Meanwhile, Shultz was scheduled to welcome King Hassan of Morocco, chairman of the Arab League, when he arrives at nearby Andrews Air Force base this afternoon. Hughes said he was not sure who would be accompanying Hassan, noting that some of the Arab League delegations might be coming to Washington separately.
Whoever arrives with Hassan will be welcomed by the U.S. but not members of the PLO, Hughes said. He said he did not expect a problem to arise because the U.S. had made it “clear” to the Arab League that “we will not talk to the PLO.”
The delegation was originally expected to include in addition to Hassan, the Foreign Ministers of Syria, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia. Later there were reports that it would be expanded to include representatives from Jordan and Algeria. One of the members will be Chedli Klibi, secretary general of the Arab League. Hughes said he did not know if there would be a separate meeting between Shultz and the Syrian Foreign Minister on the Lebanese situation.
The meetings Friday between the Arab League and Reagan and Shultz at the White House and then with Shultz at the State Department will be an “exchange of views” on Reagan’s peace initiative and the Arab League’s response at its summit conference at Fez, Morocco last month, Hughes stressed. He said there will not be negotiations since negotiations will only come when the parties begin talks in line with the Camp David framework.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
