Nixon Meets With Rabin, Sees ‘Window of Opportunity’ for Peace in Mideast
Former President Richard M. Nixon said Sunday that for the first time in history there is a “window of opportunity” for peace in the Middle East.
“I believe the chances for a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East are better now than they’ve been at any time in 45 years,” Nixon told reporters after a one-hour meeting with new Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
“But because of what has happened in what was the Soviet Union, what has happened in the Gulf and so forth, (that) creates a window of opportunity,” Nixon said, referring to the splintering of the Soviet Union that dissipated its influence in the Mideast and to the division of Arabs during the war to drive Iraq from Kuwait.
Nixon hailed Rabin as “the right man in the right place at the right time,” noting he has been a diplomat, prime minister and defense minister. Rabin led Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War and previously served as prime minister from 1974 to 1977.
The two men have been friends since meeting in 1966.
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