Reagan to face media’s questions

Press, 25 February 1988, Page 8

Reagan to face media’s questions

NZPA-Reuter Washington

President Reagan will hold his first news conference in four months today, a week before a N.A.T.O. summit, and faces questions about prospects for a new superpower arms accord and an American Middle-East peace initiative.

The likelihood of a second Reagan-era arms treaty with the Soviet Union should figure prominently at the conference after a restoration of momentum to negotiations at high-level talks in Moscow this week. After their talks, the Secretary of State, George Shultz, the Russian leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Foreign Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, expressed optimism that they could soon reach agreement on halving stocks of stragetic nuclear missiles.

They agreed that their •negotiators in Geneva would prepare three documents for the next round of Ministerial talks in Washington in one month, chiefly on how to prevent cheating. That represented a breakthrough after the Geneva talks stalled following last December’s Washington summit at which Mr Reagan and Mr Gorbachev signed a treaty eliminating medium-range missiles with ranges of 500 km to 5500 km. Mr Shultz is due to brief Mr Reagan, who will discuss the Western Alliance’s arms-control strategy at the N.A.T.O.summit in Brussels next week, on the

Moscow talks before the news conference. Mr Shultz will then leave for the Middle East in a bid to get ArabIsraeli peace talks started as part of a new United States peace initiative. The Administration has been lashed by critics who say it has made insufficient diplomatic efforts in the region. White House reporters, who grumble at the infrequent opportunities they get to question Mr Reagan, are unlikely to get answer to some of their questions.

The White House has made it clear that Mr Reagan is unlikely to respond to questions on his embattled friend, the Attorney-General, Edwin Meese, who is under investigation for his role in abortive plans for an Iraqi pipeline. Spokesman say any comment would be inappropriate because an independent prosecutor is investigating the case, in which it was revealed that a memorandum sent to Mr Meese mentioned possibly illegal payments to the Israeli Labour Party.

The White House has confined itself to reaffirmation of Mr Reagan’s trust in Mr Meese.

Nor are reporters likely to learn much more about the Marine officer, Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins, who has been kidnapped in Lebanon. Washington says little about the nine Americans held hostage in Lebanon in the belief that release of information could put them in even greater danger.