Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Sisco said here today that he favored the Carter Administration’s Middle East policy to guarantee Israel’s security and to strive for better relations with the Arab countries. Addressing an audience at Zurich University, Sisco, who is president of American University in Washington, D.C., said that only the U.S. can serve as mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict while the Soviet Union can serve only as an arms supplier.
Sisco said he disagreed with Israeli Premier Menachem Begin’s interpretation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 to the effect that it was applicable to Sinai but not to the West Bank. He said that the visit to Jerusalem last November by President Anwar Sadat of Egypt put an end to the “no peace, no war state of affairs” in the Middle East. The situation now, he said, could lead to either peace or to a fifth war in the region.
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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.
