U.S. Pleased by Israeli Acceptance, but Many Questions Remain

The United States expressed itself as “pleased” with Israel’s conditional acceptance of a “unified Arab delegation” opening a Geneva peace conference. But left unanswered were a host of questions about this development.

Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance, after testifying before a Senate committee on the Panama Canal treaties, left for New York to continue conversations there with Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan about formula for starting Arab-Israeli talks. Dayan and Vance were scheduled to meet tonight.

At the State Department, spokesman John Trattner would not even acknowledge the Israeli Cabinet’s announced decision was officially received by the United States. He refused to say what parties would make up the united delegation, who proposed it or had doubts about it, and whether the Soviet Union as Geneva co-chairman with the U.S., accepted it. Nor would Trattner say whether the United States government considered the move by Israel a conciliatory one. “We have taken note of that decision,” he said of the Israeli Cabinet’s action.

After reporting that Vance and Dayan would discuss it further, he added from a written statement “the idea of a unified Arab delegation was suggested not only by us but also by some other countries. We have been exploring and will continue to explore with the parties and the co-chairman (Soviet Union) whether the idea is acceptable to all concerned and if so how it can be worked out. We are pleased at the report that Israel has accepted the united Arab delegation idea.”

It was presumed that Vance discussed the idea Saturday with the Jordanian representative, Abdul Harri Sharof, who is chief of Jordan’s Royal Court, and will take it up here Wednesday with Syrian Foreign Minister Abdel Khaddem. He said the idea was discussed Friday with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko but would not hint at his reaction. Trattner repeatedly said he was not in a position to go into details of the formula for the delegation or any other phase of future possibility concerning it. On a question by the JTA whether the delegation would consist only of Egypt, Syria and Jordan, he said that the individuals in the delegation are “all part of negotiation.” He said “the idea of a united Arab delegation is deserving of the most serious consideration of the various options.”

Trattner insisted that the U.S. position towards the Palestine Liberation Organization is unchanged and that the U.S. “would oppose any efforts to amend or change” UN Security Council Resolution 242. He added that “if a new resolution were proposed we would of course have to study the exact formulation before determining our position.” This appeared to leave a loophole for the U.S. ultimately to join in the pro-Arab movement in the United Nations to adopt a new resolution that would enable the PLO to write its own ticket for legitimacy as a party in Middle East negotiations.