U.S. Seeks a ‘Sense of Control’ for Arabs

Secretary of State George P. Shultz told Congress on Tuesday that the thrust of a new American diplomatic initiative in the Middle East is to help the people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip “to have a greater sense of political control over the way they live.”

In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Shultz avoided providing any details of what the United States is proposing, but he suggested that the general approach is not radically different from previous U.S. proposals for the region.

“What we need is a new blend of the ideas that are (already) there,” the secretary explained. “There are lots of good ideas around, and so we want to find a way to pull them together, perhaps in a little different way.”

Try to End Deadlock

Last Sunday, in the wake of weeks of violence in the occupied territories, Israeli officials indicated that the United States had launched a major new effort to break a six-year-old deadlock in the Middle East peace process. Shultz himself acknowledged that the United States was taking a new approach toward the Mideast and that “very active discussions” were under way.

As part of the new American

initiative, President Reagan sent his former Middle East envoy, Philip C. Habib, to Jordan for discussions last weekend with King Hussein.

On Tuesday, Shultz told Congress that Hussein remains opposed to any approach similar to the 1978 Camp David accords, which led to a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. The Camp David agreement called for five years of Palestinian autonomy, followed by negotiation of a permanent settlement in the territories, but those provisions failed because of Arab opposition.

“King Hussein . . . feels he was not included in the Camp David process, and he rejects it,” Shultz said.

“And so, if you go to him and say, ‘How about getting involved in the Camp David process?’ he says: ‘I’ve already answered that question a million times. Think of something else.’ So we have to think of something else.”

Shultz said that the next step in the U.S. initiative probably will be for Richard W. Murphy, assistant secretary of state for the Middle East, to visit the region.

No U.N. Opposition

On Monday, the United States vetoed a resolution in the U.N. Security Council that appealed to Israel to exercise restraint in the occupied territories.

Shultz told Congress he did not expect the United States to oppose Israel in the United Nations any time soon.

The United States had supported a U.N. resolution in December criticizing Israel’s effort to deport Palestinians from the occupied territories.

“We recognize that Israel has a very tough problem on its hands, so we’re trying to be a good friend,” Shultz said. “ . . . We have come to feel that, having said our piece at the United Nations, that that’s enough for now.”