On the road to Geneva?

Press, 24 February 1978, Page 8

On the road to Geneva?

The call by the Soviet Communist leader, Mr Leonid Brezhnev, for a return to the Middle East peace negotiations at Geneva is welcome. It means, presumably, that most of the Arab States are prepared to go. Algeria, South Yemen. Libya, and Iraq are unlikely to go but they would be doubtful starters for any talks which included Israel and Egvpt at the moment The other Arab States would be sufficient to establish a settlement. The Soviet Union has been looking for a way to involve itself in the Middle East talks again, and while the United States will not be enthusiastic about seeing the Soviet Union there, it might consider that such involvement would be better than letting the momentum towards peace die away altogether. The. proposed American sales of jet combat aircraft to Israel. Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, may well have prompted the Russian initiative. The significant question is whether anything will come of it all. Probably the Israeli hawks always considered that if they did not get what they wanted in the talks which came after the visit by President Sadat of Egypt to Israel. Geneva was there as a fallback position The response to the Soviet call should show whether this was a realistic assessment So far, at least. Israel’s response to President Sadat’s bold initiative has been less than generous The provocation of building the settlements in terristory outside Israel at a time when peace moves were under way is likely to have cost Israel dearly in world opinion. Instead of Geneva. Israel might opt for the shuttle diplomacy of the

American Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East, Mr Alfred Atherton. Psychologically that appears to make less sense than the Geneva conference. It seems to belong to an earlier period when it overcame the objections to face-to-face meetings. The visit of President Sadat has changed all that. Perhaps Mr Atherton’s efforts will be directed not at achieving a settlement but at persuading everyone to go to Geneva — though the United States might not care for the role of implementing a Soviet initiative. However the Middle East countries themselves and the super-Powers work it out. they must all be involved.

The worsening crisis on the Horn of Africa makes it all the more important that hostilities do not break out in the Middle East Tension about the use of Cuban troops by Ethiopia and Soviet embroilment in the Horn of Africa appears to be mounting between the United States and Cuba, and between the United States and the Soviet Union. Some of the Middle East countries are already involved in the war between Somalia and Ethiopia.

So far the Palestine Liberation Organisation has tried to maintain its comparatively new-found image of respectability. The P.L.O. leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, has condemned the hijacking of the Cyprus airliner. Some signs exist that extremist violence might be mounting again, but it is too early to say whether this is a clear trend. What happens in the Middle East affects far more than the handful of countries concerned—a point which is clearly borne out when international terrorism is considered.