U.S. Sees Proposals for Joint Action with Soviet As ‘unrealistic’

The United States Government has promised Israel that Washington will do its best to ease tensions on the Syrian border although officials said that proposals for a joint American-Soviet peace approach were unrealistic.

Administration authorities characterized the Damascus officer clique in command as so reckless as to be unresponsive to a Soviet intercession even if Moscow sought to quiet the border situation. But Washington feels that the Soviet Union has its own interests to serve in the region and profits from tension by seeking to undermine pro-Western Arab regimes while supporting radical Arab elements. Officials here said there was no evidence to indicate that Russia was concerned about Syrian harassment of Israel.

WASHINGTON POST FOR NEW TRIPARTITE DECLARATION

Major American newspapers editorially stressed today the gravity of the Israeli-Syrian border situation and questioned the effectiveness of measures to abat tension there. The New York Times pointed out that “Israel cannot tolerate forever a situation in which the Soviet veto makes Security Council action one-sided and in which U.N. initiatives seem to come after Syrian aggression but in time to prevent Israeli retaliation.”

The Washington Post, commenting on Secretary-General U Thant’s initiative, said that “unfortunately, Mr. Thant did not address himself to the roots of the current flare-up,” His initiative, the paper said, “provides Syria a cover for a discreet withdrawal, but the problem of regional order will remain.” The editorial added that “the danger of war in the region will last as long as all governments there do not honor each other’s permanence and right to exist. But the temptation for any state to use force beyond its borders could be dampened if the three Western countries — perhaps joined later by the Soviet Union — were to freshen their old guarantee of regional peace.”