Against the background of the surprise visit to Morocco by Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres this week, the Reagan Administration is playing down the significance of a previously-planned trip to the region by Vice President George Bush.
Bush, who will visit Israel, Jordan and Egypt beginning next week, will be the first senior U.S. official to travel to those countries since Secretary of State George Shultz visited there last year. But a senior Administration official cautioned Tuesday against expectations of “dramatic initiatives.”
“I think we’re emphasizing here the depth of the continuity of American interests in the region, ” the official said at a briefing. He stressed that while extensive discussions were expected on the outcome of the talks between Peres and Moroccan King Hassan II, the Administration was viewing the first public visit by an Israeli leader to an Arab country other than Egypt as significant less for its likely results than for “the fact that it took place.”
Having asserted a high profile in past Middle East peace efforts that ended in impasse or failure, the Administration appears to be distancing itself from most recent development, as it waits to assess the outcome. White House and State Department officials, while praising the Peres-Hassan talks, have maintained that the initiative had come entirely from the two leaders themselves. The Administration official on Tuesday said the U.S. was informed of the meeting just “a few days” before it took place.
FOCUS OF BUSH’S TALKS
The official said, in response to a question, that the Vice President’s visit in Israel — the first leg of his week-long Middle East tour beginning July 27 — will also include discussion of allegations about Israeli spying in this country and the current investigation into alleged illegal acquisition by Israel of American technology for the production of cluster bombs.
He indicated there was also a possibility that Bush’s visit would coincide with the initialing of a compromise between Egypt and Israel on the procedure for arbitration of the boundary dispute over Taba, the small strip of territory whose status was left unresolved when Israel withdrew from the Sinai in April 1982. State Department Legal Adviser Abraham Sofaer is currently in Israel, where he is attempting to mediate an agreement on the terms of reference for arbitration.
Talks in all three countries, the official said, would also focus on the problem of international terrorism and on economic issues.
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.
