Vance to Visit Mideast, Including Cairo and Jerusalem, to Explain U.S. Support for Cairo Conference

In a renewed flurry of U.S. diplomatic activity in the Middle East, the State Department confirmed today that Secretary of State Cyrus Vance has been directed by President Carter to visit five and possibly six Middle Eastern countries, beginning Friday, to explain U.S. support for the forthcoming Cairo conference and to reassure the non-participating countries that the U.S. continues to favor a “comprehensive settlement” of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Vance will go to Cairo Dec. 9 and will be in Jerusalem Dec. 10-11. Later he will go to Jordan and Lebanon and will end his trip in Saudi Arabia on Dec. 15. He has not been invited to Syria.

State Department spokesman Hodding Carter said Vance will be accompanied by Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Alfred L. Atherton and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Philip Habib. Habib, the State Department’s third ranking official, is presently in Moscow consulting with Soviet Mideast experts. He left on his mission unannounced last Friday.

Carter said that Atherton would return to Cairo before Vance completes his Middle East rounds to attend the conference as the U.S. representative. The Cairo talks are expected to open Dec. 14 between Israel and Egypt. A United Nations observer will be present.

CONCERN IN ISRAEL OVER U.S. PRESSURE

(Concern was expressed in Jerusalem today that because Vance’s trip is intended to bolster the Cairo conference he is likely to press Israel for greater flexibility in order to increase its chances of success. Israeli observers saw the trip, coupled with Habib’s visit to Moscow, as an indication that the U.S. intends to resume a central role in the Mideast peacemaking process after belatedly giving its blessings to the Cairo talks.

(They believe Washington is now actively supporting the strategy of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and will make a last minute attempt to persuade Jordan to attend the Cairo conference and to reassure Saudi Arabia which has been less than enthusiastic over Sadat’s initiatives but has not openly criticized them.)

NOT A NEGOTIATING TRIP

At today’s State Department briefing for reporters, chief spokesman Hodding Carter recalled President Carter’s assertion at his press conference last Wednesday that the Cairo meeting is “a very constructive step on the road to peace” and to a comprehensive settlement later in Geneva. He said Vance will be exchanging views with Middle East leaders at the highest levels since “surely significant events” have taken place in recent weeks.

The State Department spokesman stressed that “the present Egyptian-Israeli initiatives have our full support” and insisted that Vance’s journey “is not a negotiating trip. He is not carrying U.S. proposals at all,” Carter said. “He is carrying an accurate sense of how we feel” and will try to get the views of Middle East leaders in “face-to-face talks” with them, not only regarding the Cairo talks but also thereafter.

He said the absence of a Syrian invitation was due presumably to President Hafez Assad’s presence in Tripoli, Libya where he joined a “confrontation” slate of Algeria, Libya, South Yemen and the Palestine Liberation Organization in opposition to Sadat.

Asked if Vance’s purpose was to enlarge the Cairo conference, Carter said the Secretary was going to “explain why Cairo is useful” and to express “his hope that they (the non-participants) keep an open mind on it.”

“Frankly,” Carter said, “It is not the objective of this trip to get them to change their mind. Primarily it is not realistic to expect change to take place” by the time the Cairo meeting opens. He said that Habib had no “expectation” that the Soviet-Union would change its mind about going to Cairo. He denied, in reply to a question, that Habib went to Moscow to reassure the Soviets that the U.S. initiative was not a take-over of the Mideast negotiating process. At another point, Carter insisted that Vance’s trip was not an attempt “to seize the stage in any way or undermine” the Cairo meeting, but simply to “see how the other parties feel.”

A WHITE HOUSE INITIATIVE

He said the initiative originated in the White House and “we asked the parties if it would be useful.” He said the trip was welcomed by Egypt and Israel. Asked about reports from Tripoli that the PLO said it would have no part of the Geneva conference or UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 and thus, apparently, has pulled out of the realm of negotiations, Carter said it was difficult to make an assessment without more “authoritative reports.”

With respect to PLO participation in negotiations, Carter reiterated: “We have an absolute requirement of adherence to 242 and 338.” He said the U.S. -Israeli working paper on Geneva conference procedures was “still a valuable tool” and that a Geneva conference later this winter was still possible. With respect of UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim’s proposal for a pre-Geneva meeting of all parties to the Middle East conflict at UN headquarters, Carter said, “We are waiting for results from the other parties before making a decision.”

EGYPT BREAKS DIPLOMATIC TIES

(Meanwhile, Cairo announced today that Egypt has severed diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen and ordered their diplomatic missions out of Egypt within 24 hours. The report, by the official Middle East News Agency, came after four Arab countries, meeting in Tripoli, Libya, agreed to freeze relations with Egypt in protest against President Anwar Sadat’s peace initiative. Earlier, Egypt recalled its ambassadors to the opposition countries for consultations. Today, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry ordered all Egyptian diplomatic personnel home.)