A top Administration official said Thursday night that the United States does not intend to “take sides” in the debate between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir over the issue of an international peace conference for the Middle East.
“We want to see peace for Israel but we will not take sides in internal polities,” Frank Carlucci, U.S. National Security Adviser, stated in a speech to the 81st annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee at the Grand Hyatt Hotel here. “It is not for the United States to decide Israel’s course and Israel’s future,” Carlucci told some 1,500 guests. “That is for Israelis to decide. For our part, we are prepared to continue our efforts with both Prime Minister Shamir and Foreign Minister Peres.”
The U.S., however, will continue to promote peace, Carlucci said, adding: “The President stands ready to help and I can tell you that there are few achievements more important to President Reagan than that of contributing to genuine peace between Israel and her neighbors.”
Carlucci’s statement came on the eve of Peres’ four-day visit to the U.S. to discuss the issue of an international conference with Secretary of State George Shultz.
BASIS FOR SOVIET PARTICIPATION
On the issue of an international conference on Mideast peace, Carlucci said that if the U.S. were convinced that the Soviets were committed to peace in the region, “there would be no interest in excluding them … They must show that they understand that Middle East peace will not come by strengthening the forces of radicalism or vague protestations about being committed to Middle East peace.”
The National Security Adviser said that the U.S. does not look for rapid, spectacular achievements in the Mideast. “We are being guided by a sober, realistic sense of the possible — recognizing the dangers but also the opportunities, and the consequences of inaction,” he said.
Continuing, Carlucci stated: “Our approach is designed to promote the quiet but real progress that is being made to build Arab-Israeli cooperation in the West Bank and Gaza. It is also designed to explore actively and creatively the possibility of getting a broader negotiating process started.”
The U.S. knows that peace cannot be imposed, Carlucci said, or be achieved at once in a single meeting. He said the U.S. explored the possibility of an international conference. But despite a significant progress in recent weeks, “much remains to be done, and at this point there is no certainty of the outcome.”
The U.S., Carlucci said, will continue its efforts because “an opportunity to move closer to the reality of peace might be lost otherwise.”
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