The State Department stressed today that planned talks with the Soviet Union are part of the “normal” dialogue between the United States and the USSR.
State Department Deputy spokesman Alan Romberg made this assertion as he confirmed that the two countries had an “agreement in principle” to discuss the Mideast. Although he had refused to confirm this agreement as late as yesterday, he said it had been reached by diplomats from the two countries before last week’s talks at Geneva on nuclear arms control.
Romberg said the agreement to discuss the Mideast was only mentioned “in passing” during the talks between Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko.
He said there still is no “date, venue nor agenda” for the talks which are expected to be private diplomatic discussions between Mideast experts from the two countries. There was some indication that Richard Murphy, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, might represent the U.S. in the talks.
NO CHANGE IN U.S. MIDEAST POLICY
The agreement does not represent any change in U.S. Mideast policy, Romberg said. He said the U.S. still opposes the Soviet proposal for an international conference to discuss Mideast issues. Earlier this week, State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb said the U.S. believes such an international conference would not be a “constructive approach” and the “only realistic path to peace is direct negotiations among the parties directly concerned based on UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.”
Romberg stressed today that no other parties would be involved in the talks and that there would not be negotiations nor attempts to reach agreements.
The U.S., in its ministerial and other discussions with the Soviets, have always discussed poor areas — bilateral issues, human rights, arms controls and regional issues, Romberg said in pointing out that the Mideast talks would be part of the normal dialogue between the two countries.
He said in the Mideast there are such issues as Afghanistan, the Iraq-Iran war and the Arab-Israel conflict. But he would not comment when he was asked whether the U.S. would use the talks to get the Soviets to make the Syrians more compliant in Lebanon and on other issues of the Arab-Israel conflict.
The present agreement in principle appears to be a direct outgrowth of President Reagan’s address to the United Nations General Assembly last September in which he expressed U.S. interest in “policy level discussions” about regional problems with the Soviet Union.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
