White House press secretary George Christian today refused to comment on the report that the USSR has approached the United States with a Middle East peace plan, but State Department officials indicated that the Soviet approach was under careful study. These sources said the initial response of President Johnson and Secretary of State Dean Rusk was favorable.
The State Department would make no formal comment on the proposal. But State Department spokesman Robert J. McCloskey said that “several countries including the Soviet Union have been in touch with us in regard to ways in which the (Dr. Gunnar V.) Jarring mission can be helped to evolve an acceptable solution to the Middle East problem.” He would neither confirm nor deny recept of the Soviet Union proposal or comment on the reported details.
Secretary of State Dean Rusk will go to New York on Sunday where he is expected to confer on the Middle East question with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. He will also see Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban and the Foreign Ministers of Egypt and Jordan. It was reliably reported at the Un that before these meetings, he will confer with special UN peace envoy in the Middle East Dr. Gunnar V. Jarring. The initial Congressional response to the Soviet plan, especially in Republican leadership circles, was that the Soviet proposals might constitute a dangerous trap for Israel.
Israeli diplomats today reiterated to the State Department Israel’s basic policy requiring direct talks with the Arabs as a prior condition to any withdrawal, in response to the peace plan advanced by the Soviet Union. The Israelis were also seeking clarification of the State Department’s stand on Mid-East peace in light of the reported contact between Moscow and Washington.
Diplomatic sources close to the State Department believe the U.S. sees the new Soviet Middle East peace proposal as a basis for discussions between Washington and Moscow on the Arab-Israel deadlock. The U.S. reportedly likes one of the four points submitted privately to Washington by the Russians — the four-power guarantee of Middle East peace. Apparently the U.S. sees the Soviet plan as a basis for discussions because neither the Arabs nor Israel have been budged on the peace question and as a result of the lack of results of the peace mission of United Nations envoy Dr. Jarring.
Well-qualified observers believe that the U.S., which is displeased over Jerusalem’s unwillingness to relent in her insistence on direct talks and to discuss disposition of the occupied territories without those talks, may attempt to apply new pressure on Israel, as a result of the Soviet overture. They see the U.S. possibly using the Soviet proposal as a tactical measure to apply such pressure to Israel to relax her insistence on direct negotiations. They do not believe however that President Johnson will shift diplomatic emphasis away from his five-point Middle East peace plan enunciated June 19, 1967 to an imposed settlement.
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