Shultz Shuns Differences in New Talks With Israelis

Secretary of State George P. Shultz today sidestepped differences with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir on a Middle East peace conference and kept a U.S. peace plan alive by focusing on Palestinian self-rule.

“We do have a sense of movement,” a senior U.S. official told reporters after Shultz met separately with Shamir, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

A senior Israeli defense official, however, said the government remained deadlocked and the only way to gain acceptance of the plan would be for Shultz to persuade King Hussein of Jordan to accept it.

May Bring About Change

“I feel it can bring about a change,” the official said in a briefing for American reporters under rules that barred identifying him.

Shultz will hold talks with Hussein in Amman on Tuesday, return to Jerusalem with a report for Israeli leaders and shuttle back to the king on Wednesday.

The U.S. plan calls for three years of self-rule, but not statehood, for the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Negotiations on an overall settlement would open in December.

Although Shultz set a mid-March deadline for a reply, Israel, Jordan and Syria have all held back--neither accepting nor rejecting the U.S. plan.

After Shultz met with Shamir for two hours, a spokesman for the prime minister said they were still in disagreement over a Middle East peace conference and talks Shultz held with two members of the Palestine National Council in Washington nine days ago.

But the spokesman, Avi Pazner, said there was “more convergence” between Shultz and Shamir on Palestinian self-rule and an overall settlement.

Similarly, Peres said after his two-hour session with Shultz that he believed “we moved forward even if the road is still long. We went beyond the international conference.”

Shultz, meanwhile, said he was encouraged that “we have now engaged in this initiative in the important aspects of its content, namely direct face-to-face negotiations.”

Soviet Inroad Seen

Despite reassurances from Shultz that the United States would stand by Israel, Shamir contends an international conference would offer a dangerous opportunity for the Soviet Union to get in the way of direct negotiations with the Arabs and impose an unacceptable settlement.

Shultz, on his second visit to the area in a month, also offered assurances the United States would oppose a Palestinian state and would counter efforts to force Israel to retreat to its pre-1967 borders.

However, he emphasized Sunday that negotiations must be based on U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which calls on Israel to yield West Bank and Gaza territory.

Shamir described his meeting with Shultz as “a very good and basic discussion.”