President Georges Pompidou asserted today that France’s Middle East policy is constant and has not changed and is based on two principles: Israel’s right to existence behind safe, secure borders and Israel’s withdrawal from all of the captured Arab areas. Pompidou, speaking at a press conference, said that “those who think that they can discern a change in France’s policy have, either through passion or through lack of attention, failed to listen carefully.” The French leader, commenting in reply to a question by the Paris correspondent of the Egyptian newspaper Al Mussawhar, added that any settlement must be agreed to by Israel, Egypt and Jordan and that the Palestinians must be granted self-determination at the “proper time.” In response to another question, Pompidou stated that the Mediterranean remained an integral and crucial factor in France’s over-all foreign policy.
Meanwhile, visiting Israeli Cabinet official Shimon Peres, Minister of Transport, Communications and Posts, today described his contacts with French authorities here as “friendly, relaxed and confident.” Peres, partaking in the first Franco-Israeli ministerial meetings since late 1968, called them helpful. He said he had raised with Robert Galley, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, the possibility of laying a new underwater cable from Marseilles to Haifa, the existing one being saturated. The Israeli said he had also discussed with Galley the possibility of joint research in telephone-exchange installations and electronic equipment, and had talked with Transport Minister Jean Chamant about the expiring El Al-Air France agreement.
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.
