HUSSEIN LOOKS TO U.S.

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31521, 8 November 1967, Page 21

HUSSEIN LOOKS TO U.S.

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, Nov. 7. King Hussein, widely regarded as both proWestern and one of the most moderate Arab leaders, now believes that only the United States can break the United Nations deadlock over solving the Middle East crisis, informed sources said in Washington yesterday.

The King is in Washington on a four-day visit after trips to Moscow, London, Bonn and Paris, in a bid to enlist support for the Arab position. He is making his second self-initiated visit to America since the June war and is expected to meet President Johnson today. Informed sources doubted, however, whether the United States would agree to Arab demands that Israel should be urged to withdraw from captured territories as a prerequisite for direct peace negotiations between Jew and Arab. On the other hand, King Hussein immediately - ruled out speedy direct negotiations while Israel occupies Arab land. “For the time being the position is that we will not discuss the problem directly,” the King said. “We will discuss it through the United Nations and at Security Council level.” Speaking to reporters after two hours and a half with the Secretary of State, Mr Dean Rusk, and other top officials pressing for a permanent solution to the post-war crisis, King Hussein said that the Arabs were not against any country’s right to exist—“but we are trying to determine that we enjoy the same right.” “We are willing to give a great deal, being reasonable,” he said. But he refused to give details of Arab conditions for a settlement. He is also believed to be seeking United States arms to refurbish his nation’s armoury, drained in the six-day war. Reliable sources said that the United States had already refused a bid for supersonic FlO4 fighters, but the King

hoped for other equipment, including tanks. He has already threatened to turn to Moscow for air power if the W’est refuses to supply planes. “The road to real peace is indeed a long one,” the King said in a speech at Georgetown University tonight, the “New York Times” reported. “First, there must be the

admission on the part of the Arabs that Israel is a present fact of life. We may not like it, and we may choose not to recognise it, just as we choose not to recognise China.” Then quickly he added that it was important to know Israel’s size and shape. “Which one doe., the world recognise?” he asked. “The Israel that the United Nations created? The Israel of its 1948 expansion? Or the Israel of its recent aggression?” Privately the King is reported to have indicated that he does not expect total Israeli withdrawal, even from areas of the west bank of the Jordan. Before the war this was part of Jordan. American officials and other Western diplomats noted with interest that Cairo had not publicly repudiated or criticised any of King Hussein’s recent presentations of the Arab position. Diplomats said that privately, through diplomatic channels, Cairo had confirmed much of-what King Hussein was making public. Egyptian officials were reported by some Western diplomatic sources to have given approval in principle for the passage of Israeli flag vessels through the Suez Canal as part of an over-all settlement.