The United States government obliquely appeared to take comfort in what did not happen over the weekend at the meeting in Cairo of Arab foreign ministers. The ministers agreed on a general strategy for pressing the United Nations General Assembly, which begins its 32nd session Sept. 20, to impose severe strictures on Israel but reportedly rejected a move to suspend Israel from the world body.
State Department spokesman Hodding Carter refused to discuss the Cairo meeting. However, the Voice of America (VOA), which takes policy guidance from the Department, broadcast that “what did happen” there “is being seen by most observers as a victory for the moderates.” The VOA script obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency did not identify the observers.
SOME ROOM FOR NEGOTIATIONS
The VOA also noted that the “more moderate position leaves at least some room for negotiations” and that there will be “surely plenty of that during the UN session when Arabs and Israelis make their case in the corridors and when they sit down separately with President Carter and Secretary of State (Cyrus) Vance in private meetings aimed at getting the process of peace-makings going again.”
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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.
