UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim announced today that he would send a representative to the pre-Geneva meeting in Cairo this week but proposed at the same time that the Cairo meeting be followed by a preparatory conference at UN headquarters or any other agreed location of all parties invited to the Cairo talks.
He said at a press conference this morning, “As it turns out, the meeting in Cairo will probably have limited participation” and therefore, he believed that a preparatory meeting at the UN “could facilitate the convening of an early and constructive conference at Geneva.”
Waldheim said he has accepted Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s invitation to the Cairo conference and intends to designate Gen. Ensio Siilasvuo, chief coordinator of UN peace-keeping operations in the Middle East, to be present at the Cairo meeting as his representative. But he said he favored a subsequent meeting at the UN because it would be broadly based. Waldheim’s proposal surprised observers here. Their first reaction was that it is intended to ensure a more meaningful role for the UN in any Middle East peace settlement. (See related story P. 3.)
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