United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim said in an interview with a Dutch journalist that his forthcoming trip to the Middle East is not meant to compete with U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s peacemaking efforts there. He said on-the-spot discussions concerning problems which have arisen since the installation of UN peace-keeping forces in the Mideast necessitated his trip to the region.
Waldheim said he would visit the Sinai buffer zone and UN observer groups on the Israeli-Syrian border and indicated he would also contact governments. He did not specify which ones. Waldheim said he considered a UN peace-keeping force of 6500 men in the Middle East sufficient. Turning to the prospects for a solution to the Mideast conflict, the UN Secretary General said it will require “long and hard negotiations at Geneva.” Made in New York by the well-known Dutch political commentator Henk Neuman, the 50-minute interview was shown on Dutch television this weekend.
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.
