The White House and the State Department maintained total silence on Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s 13th shuttle trip between Damascus and Jerusalem today in his unexpected “last” effort to disengage Israeli and Syrian forces. (See P. 3 for view from Jerusalem.)
Spokesmen declined to speculate on when Kis- singer might return to Washington or to discuss the precise questions holding up the disengagement agreement that looked so promising only three days ago. Neither would they speculate on why Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko flew into Damascus from Moscow with out previous public notice.
However, reports from the Kissinger entourage, now in its 31st day in the Middle East, indicated in varying degrees emphasis that the main issues are the Palestinian guerrillas, which had no mention in the past, and the dimensions of the proposed buffer zone. In addition other differences include the scope of the United Nations role and the method of guaranteeing observance of the disengagement. Of these, some observers here said that the most important is the issue of the guerrillas.
Syria’s reported refusal to agree to Israel’s demand for assurances that guerrillas would be barred from incursions across the disengagement line and the current Gromyko visit to Damascus without prior public notice are believed here to be part of the same stumbling block to an agreement.
To preserve its influence with Syria and with the Palestinian guerrillas, the Soviet position is believed to be that a disengagement agreement mast include Israel’s willingness to acknowledge that it will ultimately surrender all the areas it has acquired since 1967 but that the disengagement accord cannot include anything about the Palestinian activities. That issue must go be fore conference in Geneva where it is believed, the Soviets will press for giving the Palestinians their “national rights.” The precise nature of the issue regarding the Palestinians for disengagement agreement purposes is not being discussed in official circles here.
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