The State Department said today that former Presidents Carter and Ford, in a jointly written article, have “focused rightly on Israeli settlements” on the West Bank as a “problem” in the Middle East peace negotiations.
But while Department spokesman John Hughes said the settlements were a “problem which President Reagan has identified as an obstacle to peace,” he refused to go along with the two former Presidents who said it was the “major obstacle” for moderate Arabs to join the peace process.
In the copyrighted article in the forthcoming February Readers Digest, Carter and Ford said, “Israel must half the settlement policy — a move that might alone break the diplomatic logjam.” (See full story in January 18 Bulletin.)
Noting that Reagan urged a freeze on further settlements in his September I peace initiative, Hughes said, “Israel’s long term security can only be assured by real peace and real peace can only be achieved through a negotiated exchange of occupied Arab territories.” He stressed that the Reagan Administration has said “on a number of occasions” that the settlement policy “damages the chances for peace.”
But Hughes refused to restate the position of the Ford and Carter Administrations that the settlements are illegal. The Reagan Administration has never questioned their legality but only said that they are “unhelpful” to the peace process.
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