Vance to put U.S. peace line

Press, 1 August 1977, Page 8

Vance to put U.S. peace line

NZPA-Reuter Washington

The United States Secretary of State (Mr Cyrus Vance) is expected in the Middle East today bearing; American proposals to reconvene the Geneva peace conference. President Jimmy Carter! said that Mr Vance would try to put together some sort of framework on which l the United States and the! Soviet Union, the co-chair-! men of the Geneva confer-: ence, could jointly call' for resumed negotiations. Mr Vance formally out-1 lined the United States prop-1 osals to a Soviet diplomat at: the State Department at the week-end. The proposals included suggestions on both the procedure and substance of any reconvened talks, he said.

Mr Carter said at the week-end that he was opti-. mistic about the resumption of the Geneva talks, but Israel’s legalisation of three Jewish settlements on the

'occupied West Bank of the Jordan was an additional obstacle not previously antici■pated, he said. During his 11-day tour ot 1 Egypt, Lebanon, Syria Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, Mr Vance will seek , signs of flexibility on both i sides. The Carter Administration does not want a new conferience at Geneva to turn into jwhat Administration officials [describe as an “exercise in summitry.” In public remarks about the mission. Mr Vance has appeared less optimistic than President Carter about the chances of success ">n this visit, his second to the six Middle East States in six i months. He said that at thel end of the mission he might: not know definitely whether' the Geneva conference could be reconvened. In that event, further; meetings would be held with' Middle East Foreign Min-, isters in New York, at the; opening of the United

(Nations General Assembly in iSeptember, he said. ; Apart from the settle(ments on the West Bank, occupied by Israel during the 11967 Middle East war. the chief obstacle to a peace; (conference is the question of ; Palestinian representation at 'Geneva.

Israel opposes any role for the Palestine Liberation Organisation, but has said that Palestinian Arabs not members of the P.L.O. could join the Jordanian delegation.