Israeli officials believe the 36-hour visit by UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim which ended Friday was productive inasmuch as Waldheim now knows exactly where Israel stands with respect to the Palestinian issue and the Geneva conference. The Secretary General also must be aware that the UN has little if any role to play in mediating a solution of the Middle East conflict.
Foreign Minister Yigal Allon summed up Israel’s position on the Palestinians after he saw Waldheim off at Atarot Airport. He told reporters, “Palestinians yes, PLO no.” It was made clear to Waldheim that Israel was ready to discuss the Palestinian issue at Geneva but not with the PLO.
Israeli leaders also reaffirmed, in the course of their conversations with Waldheim, that Israel would participate in the Geneva conference if invited on the basis of the original terms of the conference embodied in Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.
Israel does not recognize and will not accept UN General Assembly resolution of Nov. 24, 1976 demanding Israel’s withdrawal from all occupied territories by June, 1977, Waldheim was told. That resolution and earlier ones in the General Assembly calling for PLO participation in any Middle East peace talks deprives the UN, in Israel’s view, of any substantive role in the negotiating process.
NO CREDENCE TO PLO MODERATION
Waldheim’s talks with Israeli leaders were cordial although they disagreed on a number of points, chiefly the attitude of the PLO. The Secretary General, who had met PLO chief Yasir Arafat in Damascus before coming to Israel, said Arafat told him that the Palestinians were prepared to accept a “mini-state alongside Israel” consisting apparently of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
According to Waldheim, this indicated at least de facto acceptance of Israel by the PLO and a new, moderate approach. “When I raised the question of the recognition of Israel with Arafat he said that the fact that the PLO accepts a Palestinian entity next to the State of Israel is proof that we accept her existence,” Waldheim said in an interview in the Jerusalem Post.
But Israel gives no credence to the PLO’s alleged moderation. Allon told reporters, “As far as I am concerned there has been no PLO leader yet who has really stated that he has given up the idea of a ‘secular bi-national state.’ meaning the destruction of Israel.”
Allon’s position was reinforced while Waldheim was still in Israel when a PLO spokesman in Damascus said it has not dropped its ultimate aim of establishing a “secular democratic state” in all of Palestine. Earlier, reports from Lebanon quoted sources “close to Arafat” as denying that the PLO leader had intimated acceptance of Israel to Waldheim. The Secretary General declined to comment on these reports.
WARNS AGAINST DEADLOCK
Waldheim was warned by Premier Yitzhak Rabin against Arab attempts to by-pass Geneva and refer the Middle East conflict back to the Security Council. Such indications were given by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy last week. It would produce only a deadlock, Rabin said. On the other hand, he told Waldheim “If you send us a letter of invitation according to the only acceptable formula, we shall agree to go to Geneva. No domestic or electoral obstacles whatsoever exist here.”
Although Waldheim’s visit was of little diplomatic importance, especially in view of the arrival here shortly of U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance, the Secretary General responded favorably on certain matters of special concern to Israel. He promised to take up with Syrian authorities the problem of some 400 unmarried Jewish women in Syria who have applied for exit visas so that they can find husbands abroad. He also promised to contribute his efforts to ease the emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union.
WALDHEIM DENIES MISSION FAILED
(Speaking to reporters in Geneva today at the end of his Mideast tour, Waldheim denied press reports that his mission had been a failure. He said his mission had succeeded in clarifying the positions of all the parties concerned, but added that there might have to be new approaches to Arab-Israel peace negotiations.
(Waldheim stated that the Geneva talks are unlikely to resume by the end of March, as recommended by the UN, but did not exclude the possibility of them reconvening at an unspecified later date. He warned that if there is no breakthrough in the negotiating process “the danger of a new military confrontation is certainly real.”)
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