Rogers to visit M.E.

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32589, 24 April 1971, Page 17

Rogers to visit M.E.

(N.Z.F.A.-Reuter—Copyrignt) WASHINGTON, April 23. The United States Secretary of State (Mr William Rogers) is expected to announce today that he will make a week-long tour of Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi-Arabia, beginning on May 2, in a personal bid to secure a Middle East peace settlement. Mr Rogers is also expected to comment at a press conference today on Washington’s improving relations with China; the Strategic Arms Limtation Talks with the Soviet Union, and the Vietnam war.

But the Middle East situation is likely to be the main topic, and Mr Rogers will probably be questioned closely at the conference on what guarantees, if any, Washington has been asked to give Israel if she withdraws her forces to some extent from the Sinai Peninsula. However, Mr Rogers’s decision to visit the Middle East means it is highly unlikely he will be able to discuss in any detail the Suez Canal reopening scheme proposed by the Israeli Prime Minister (Mrs Meir). One of die aims of the Seretary of State’s tour is to obtain first-hand impressions of the state of American relations with the Arab world. In Cairo, he will seek to further the chances of re-estab-lishing formally the diplomatric relations suspended by Egypt during the six-day Middle East war in June 1967.