Reagan, Hussein Talk, Fail to Agree on Peace Moves

President Reagan and King Hussein of Jordan held talks today on Middle East security and stability, but came to no agreement on a new course of action to reactivate the moribund peace process.

A senior Administration official said Hussein, on an unofficial visit to the United States, offered “a number of suggestions” on how the process might be advanced, but indicated that Reagan was noncommittal in his response.

“The way it was left was we would study these and be in very close touch with the king,” the official said.

What emerged from the hour of talks--a private meeting in the Oval Office, followed by an expanded discussion with aides--was a consensus that the United States will remain active in the Middle East.

“I think we share the king’s appreciation that we’ve got a major role to play--that if there is a drift without the peace process, that drift is in the negative direction and it’s in the direction of war,” the official said.

During a photo session in the Oval Office, Reagan waved off questions on whether he would renew a stymied bid to sell arms to Jordan. That issue was raised only briefly and in a very general sense, the official said.

Hussein, taking his cue from Reagan, declined to answer questions about his attempt to mediate better relations between Syria and Iraq.

The meeting was the first between the two leaders since the February collapse of a yearlong effort by Hussein to develop a joint framework with Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat for peace talks with Israel.

Long regarded by the Administration as a central figure in any peace negotiations, Hussein in recent months has concentrated instead on issues of Arab unity, including his own relations with Syria, as U.S. officials have worked to remove a territorial dispute between Egypt and Israel as one of the most immediate impediments to reinvigoration of the peace process.

When he was en route to the United States, French officials said Hussein told French President Francois Mitterrand in Paris that he was “personally optimistic” about the prospects for easing tensions in the Arab world intensified by the Iran-Iraq war.