SOLVING M.E. LANDS

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31730, 13 July 1968, Page 13

SOLVING M.E. LANDS

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) STOCKHOLM, July 12. There can be no Middle East peace settlement until Israel has moved out of Arab lands seized in the June war last year, the Soviet Prime Minister (Mr Kosygin) has said.

He has accused Israel of prolonging the conflict by clinging to captured territories, and has said that Israel’s intention to keep the territories was “clear to all,” according to the Associated Press.

Despite reports of differences between the Soviet Union and Egypt on Middle East strategy, Mr Kosygin’s brief speech at a Swedish Foreign Ministry dinner gave no indication that Moscow's pro-Arab line would be softened in expected talks in Sweden between Mr Kosygin and the Swedish Ambassador (Mr Jarring), the United Nations special peace envoy to the Middle East. The United Nations has been pressing to mediate in the Middle East dispute with a formula calling for both Israeli withdrawal and Arab guarantees of Israel’s right to exist within recognised boundaries. The deadlock—based on Arab insistence on unconditional Israeli withdrawal, and on Israeli’s refusal to move, pending direct negotiations on a permanent settlement—has been a topic of talks in other areas. Egypt’s President Nasser, on his way home from Moscow, conferred this week with President Tito, who seeks a political solution. President Tito has said that the prolongation of Israel’s occupation of territories it over-ran in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria increases the danger of a new war. A communique issued in Moscow has said that Soviet military aid to Egypt will l continue. The flow of arms

has slowed since the Russians replaced major equipment which Egypt lost in the 1967 war.

General Abdel Monim Riad, Chief of the Egyptian General Staff, who stayed on in Moscow after President Nasser’s departure, has held secret talks with Soviet military men, and is believed to have been seeking more advanced weapons.

Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, the newspaper, “Haaretz” said Moscow’s aim was to create a stable tension in the Middle East, but there was no doubt that President Nasser was trying to organise Egypt for another war if Israel did not withdraw from captured territories.

In Tel Aviv, the Israeli newspaper “Yediot Aharonot” reported that King Hussein of Jordan had run into trouble by asking his army to support him in making peace with Israel.

Quoting two Jerusalem Arabs back from a visit to Amman, it said the young King solicited help at a sec-

ret meeting of about 100 top officers. The paper quoted the King as saying: “I am asking your approval to seek a settlement with Israel. Jordan cannot fight Israel alone. We are always losing . . .”

His speech only enraged the officers, the paper said. Some walked out. Others were reported to have shouted for the King to swing away from the West, and into the Soviet sphere. Meanwhile, Mr George Ball, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, is in London for meetings with his British counterpart, Lord Caradon, and other British officials, about the Middle East. Aides said that the British Foreign Secretary (Mr Stewart) would urge on the United States a course of action involving considerable Israeli concessions—including abandonment of insistence on direct negotiations with the Arabs, and a dropping of the demand for right of passage of Israeli ships through the Suez Canal.