President and Mrs. Nixon, accompanied by Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, will leave Monday on their long heralded Middle East journey that will include a two-day stopover in Salzburg, Austria and a visit to four Arab countries and Israel over the ensuing nine days. The trip was definitely presaged when Israel and Syria signed a military disengagement accord last week.
The President’s visit to Israel will take place June 16-17 and will be his next to last stop. He will begin his Middle East visit June 12 when he arrives in Cairo where he will remain longer than in any other capital. On June 14, he will fly to Saudi Arabia and on the following day to Syria from where he will continue on to Israel. He will go to Jordan June 17 and return to Washington on the 18th.
In announcing Nixon’s trip and itinerary, the White House said with respect to his stop in Israel, “The President is gratified that the will have the opportunity to visit with President (Ephraim) Katzir and renew his old friendship with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.” A year ago last March, at a State Dinner in the White House for the then Israeli Premier Golda Meir, Nixon lauded Rabin’s six year ambassadorial service for Israel in Washington.
MEETS KREISKY FIRST
Nixon’s stopover in Salzburg as the guest of Chancellor Bruno Kreiaky fits the pattern of his stop there two years ago when enroute to Moscow for his first summit conference with Soviet leaders. The length of his stay in Cairo indicates the degree of ripening cooperation between the U.S. and Egypt Spokesmen in both Cairo and Washington spoke in glowing terms of the Cairo visit.
In Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Abdul Halem Khaddam predicted that diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Syria will be resumed “very shortly”, an indication that an announcement to that effect probably will be made during Nixon’s stay there. Syria broke diplomatic ties with Washington during the 1967 Six-Day War. Nixon’s visit to the Syrian capital will be the first time an incumbent President of the U.S. has visited a country with which the U.S. has no formal diplomatic relations.
In announcing the details of the Nixon Middle East trip, White House Deputy Press Secretary Gerald Warren said, “Over the past seven months we have witnessed a definite strengthening of mutual trust and confidence between the U.S. and Middle Eastern countries. It is the President’s intention to confirm personally his dedication to carrying forward this position. The President’s trip to the Middle East will serve to ratify the new environment that now exists in the area and will afford an opportunity at the highest level for each of the parties involved to consolidate what has been achieved.
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