Eban and Heath to talk

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32778, 1 December 1971, Page 17

Eban and Heath to talk

(N.ZT.A.-Reuter-—Copyriaht) LONDON, November 30.

Mr Abba Eban, the Israeli Foreign Minister, will call on Mr Edward Heath, the British Prime Minister, today to discuss the Arab-Israeli dispute and European Common Market questions.

Mr Eban, in Britain fori three days of talks with the British Government, yesterday had a two-hour comprehensive discussion on the Arab-Israeli problem with the British Foreign Secretary (Sir Alec Douglas-Home). The two Foreign Ministers will continue their discussion this afternoon soon after which Mr Eban will call on Mr Heath. Informed British sources said that no new proposals for solving the Arab-Israeli problem were likely to emerge from Mr Eban’s talks with British Ministers. After Mr Eban’s meeting with Sir Alec Douglas-Home yesterday, the sources said that indeed it was not any easier now than it was to see how a solution could be found. But both the Foreign Ministers yesterday agreed that their exchange of views was useful and important, the sources added. Mr Eban’s talks here come just before the United Nations General Assembly’s debate on the Arab-Israeli dispute. This discussion is due to begin in New York on Friday, and Mr Eban is planning to fly there for it on Thursday. The British sources said that Sir Alec Douglas-Home was concerned that prospects towards a Middle East settlement had recently receded for various reasons. The sources added that the British side hoped that the temperature of the General Assembly’s debate would be kept down. Mr Eban, who arrived on Sunday from Tel Aviv, is paying the first official visit by an Israeli Foreign Minister to Britain. The Israeli Prime Minister (Mrs Golda Meir) will leave Jerusalem today for Wash-

ington for crucial talks with President Nixon on policy differences between Israel and the United States. Officials said that the discussions would centre on two main problems, the resumed supply of Phantom fighterbombers which the United States Administration had held up for several months, and the question of a Suez Canal settlement with Egypt under United States auspices, which had been deadlocked for some time.