NASSER OFFERS EARLY TALKS

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28105, 22 October 1956, Page 11

NASSER OFFERS EARLY TALKS

Geneva Meeting On Suez Sought

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, October 20. The Egyptian President (Colonel Nasser) said last night that he would be willing to go to Geneva to meet the Prime Ministers of Britain and France if it would achieve a peaceful solution of the Suez dispute. In an interview with a British United Press correspondent at Tahira Palace, once the residence of Queen Farida. Colonel Nasser said the Geneva talks could take place the week after next. But he said he could not set an exact date until his Foreign Minister (Mahmoud Fawzi) returned from the United States on Monday. Colonel Nasser indicated that he would negotiate personally only with the Prime Ministers of Britain and France and not with either of the Foreign Ministers, Mr Selwyn Lloyd or Mr Antoine Pineau.

He said Egypt was prepared to pre- I sent certain proposals on canal tolls at the proposed meeting, but firmly rejected dealing with the Suez Canal Users’ Association. “We are ready to co-operate and negotiate with all the users of the canal and not just those 18 Powers," he said. In Washington, diplomatic sources said today that the United Nations Secretary-General (Mr Dag Hammarskjold) * would invite the British French and Egyptian Foreign Ministers to hold further talks on the Suez problem in Geneva on October 29. The sources said they did not know whether invitations had actually yet ben sent. In London. Mr Selwyn Lloyd reaffirmed that Britain was ready to discuss the Suez problem vith Egypt as soon as Egypt proposed guarantees to the Canal Users’ Association which would be as effective as those covered by the 18-nation control plan. He believed that this was also the position of the French Government. “As yet we have had no response from the Egyptians.” he said. Mr Lloyd was speaking just before the Foreign Office spokesman stated that no arrangement for a meeting of Britain. France, and Egypt on the Suez question had been made. The spokesman denied a report from Cairo that a meeting of representatives of the three Governments would take place in Geneva on October 29. India’s Minister without Portfolio (Mr V. K. Khrishna Menon) said in Cairo after a meeting with President Nasser that there were new developments in the Suez Canal question. “Things now are moving.” he told reporters. “All I can tell you at the moment is that the principal parties concerned are now discussing concrete proposals related to the p oblem.”