The State Department refused to confirm reports today that a rift has developed between the Soviet Union and the United States over the latter’s efforts to engineer an interim agreement between Israel and Egypt to reopen the Suez Canal. State Department sources admitted however that there appeared to be a “drift” by the Soviet government toward opposition to the U.S. role. Department spokesman Charles Bray refused to comment on reports that the Soviet United Nations Ambassador Jacob Malik delivered a half-hour criticism of the U.S. at yesterday’s Big Four meeting in New York. He was reported to have said that the U.S. had no business “interfering” in the question of reopening the Suez Canal because that was a matter for the two parties to settle. Malik reportedly admonished the U.S. for failing to stick to the position of seeking an overall settlement through the Jarring talks and launched into a tirade against Zionism, colonialism and arms.
In a related development, the official Soviet news agency lass distributed a statement in Moscow today announcing that the Soviet Union and Egypt have agreed on “further joint steps aimed at normalizing the situation and strengthening peace in the Middle East.” The Soviet statement followed a five day visit to Moscow by Egypt’s Foreign Minister Mahmoud Riad during which time he conferred with Premier Alexei N. Kosygin and Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko. Following Riad’s return yesterday to Cairo, the semi-official daily Al Ahram reported that the Soviet Union was planning to “activate the political situation” in the Mideast. The paper said Moscow would take an initiative outside the Four Power talks and without contact with the United States. State Department sources said today that there were no official plans for Secretary of State William P. Rogers to visit any Middle East countries following the SENTO meetings he will attend in Ankara later this month. The JTA learned however that Michael Sterner, chief of the State Department’s Egyptian Desk, arrived in Cairo yesterday for what was officially described as “orientation.” The presence of the American official gave rise to reports that Rogers planned to visit Cairo and other Mideast capitals.
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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.
