Shevardnadze in bid for Mid-East peace

Press, 23 February 1989, Page 8

Shevardnadze in bid for Mid-East peace

NZPA-Reuter Cairo The Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, challenging United States dominance of Middle East diplomacy, is holding separate talks with Israel’s Moshe Arens and the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Cairo. Mr Shevardnadze will be pushing the Kremlin’s Middle East peace drive into top gear when he tries to overcome Israel’s resistance to an international conference. In the run-up to his meeting with the Israel Foreign Minister, he declared that a settlement to the 40-year-old ArabIsrael conflict was no mirage and it was vital to the Soviet Union because the region was Moscow’s backyard. In Washington, President George Bush said he was not worried about Mr Shevardnadze seizing the initiative in a field in which Washington has made the running for years. "I don’t want to send somebody just changing off on a mission to counter Mr.

Shevardnadze’s trip,” he told a news conference. Mr Shevardnadze yesterday was due to meet Mr Arens at the Soviet Embassy residence in the morning and Mr Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (P.L.0.), in the evening. Conflicting timetables appeared to rule out any attempt to broker indirect talks between Messrs Arens and Arafat. Mr Arens was scheduled to leave Cairo before the P.L.O. chief met Mr Shevardnadze. The Soviet Minister’s five-nation tour has given Moscow — at least temporarily — a prominent Middle East role played by Washington since it brought Egypt and Israel together in a peace pact a decade ago. Although Washington started direct talks with the P.L.O. last December after it recognised Israel, United States efforts to spark broader Arab-Israel contacts fizzled out in the dying months of the Reagan Administration.