Middle-East peace bid talks

Press, 21 November 1987, Page 10

Middle-East peace bid talks

NZPA-Reuter Washington President Reagan will meet the Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir, today amid official scepticism of prospects for finding an acceptable formula for Middle East peace talks. United States officials say they are not confident of success, despite press reports to the contrary. There was no official United States comment on a “Washington Times” report that Jordanian, Syrian and Israeli leaders would meet Mr Reagan and the Soviet leader, Mi-

khail Gorbachev, during their summit talks in Washington from December 7-10. Mr Shamir, who has opposed trenchantly :the idea of an international peace conference, also refused comment in a television interview. The Israeli newspaper, “Haaretz,” said Mr Shamir conditionally had agreed to such a meeting provided he served as Israel’s representative and not his procoriference coalition partner and political opponent, Shimon Perez, the Foreign Minister.

“Haaretz” quoted senior members of Mr Shamir’s Likud bloc as saying he had also stipulated among other conditions that the international sponsors play no active role in negotiations and that they withdraw at the end of the first day. United States officials, while admitting moves on Middle East peace were being-closely guarded- at the top of the . Reagan Administration, expressed some scepticism of the reports. The officials, who asked not to be identified, said

the secrecy meant they could not rule out the press reports, but they noted that the Secretary of State, George Shultz, who will also meet Mr Shamir, visited Jerusalem last month and came away in evident disappointmentfat his failure to find a formula that would suit the Israeli leader. Mr Shultz said no new ideas had emerged from his talks with Mr Shamir, describing his efforts as “rearranging the furniture” in -a bid to find a negotiating formula that all parties could live with.