The White House said today that President Carter is pleased with the decision by United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim to have the UN represented at the Cairo meeting preparatory for the Geneva conference. In making the statement, Presidential Press Secretary Jody Powell also stated, “We ought to encourage and support” the Cairo meeting and expressed the desire that it will “lead us to another step down the road” toward a comprehensive Middle East settlement.
He said the U.S. will make a “full announcement this week” about the Cairo meeting. Carter is expected to discuss the Cairo meeting at his press conference tomorrow morning. In expressions much warmer toward the Cairo conference than had been expressed at the State Department earlier today, Powell praised Egypt and Israel, saying “their initiative” is one “which we applaud and support.” He made clear, however, that “it is not in the interests of the parties for the U.S. to “preempt” the meeting and that the agenda will be worked out by Egypt and Israel.
Powell referred to the “tremendously positive aspects both of the visit to Jerusalem (by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat) and the upcoming Cairo meeting” which, he emphasized, were “generated by the parties involved. The view of this Administration is that we should not be overly intrusive in the process” toward the common goal of peace and that “we should encourage but not dominate these initiatives,” Powell said.
HOUSE RESOLUTION PRAISES SADAT, BEGIN
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives today unanimously approved by voice vote a resolution praising Sadat and Premier Menachem Begin of Israel “for the courageous steps they have taken to resolve the differences between their nations and to bring peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors through face-to-face negotiations in the context of a Geneva conference.”
The resolution, which was sent to the Senate, added: “We hope this will result in further face-to-face negotiations which will lead to a comprehensive, just and durable peace.” House Democratic leader Jim Wright of Texas, who lead a Congressional delegation that attended Sadat’s address to the Knesset, and Republican leader John Rhodes of Arizona introduced the resolution.
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