The meeting of President Nixon with French President Charles de Gaulle did not change the American stand that bi-lateral talks should precede any Four Power talks on the Middle East, State Department spokesman Robert J. McCloskey said today. He indicated that the U.S. position remained the same on the Mideast as before the Nixon trip.
Mr. McCloskey said, “We are still in the round of bi-lateral conversations.” Ambassador Charles Yost, U.S. envoy to the United Nations, has been talking with his opposite numbers from France, Britain and the Soviet Union.
State Department sources said meanwhile that the Middle East figured prominently in Mr. Nixon’s discussions with European leaders. They said that it was generally understood by the European Governments that preliminary bi-lateral talks would precede a Big Four conference.
White House sources said today that Mr. Nixon would publicly define his latest thinking on the Mideast situation during his Tuesday night press conference which will be devoted to foreign policy. State Department officials said the President was apparently reviewing the U.S. stand in the Arab-Israeli conflict in light of his meetings last week with President de Gaulle and other West European leaders.
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.
