159. Telegram From the U.S. Interests Section of the Spanish Embassy in the United Arab Republic to the Department of State1
2275. 1. Knowing full well Russians would be giving UAR their version Sisco/Dobrynin lunch (State 154986),2 I telephoned Mohamed Riad of FonOff this morning offering to brief him. Offer was accepted with alacrity. Mohamed took extensive notes of conversation.
2. At conclusion of conversation I said I wanted to say a few words on my own and could assure Mohamed that I was entirely uninstructed in the premises. I viewed events of the last few weeks with increasing concern. UAR seemed to be walking trance-like down ever diminishing corridor of labyrinth from which there seemed no practical exit. I was frankly fed up with stale slogans, accusations that my government was practicing deceit and UAR tendency hide behind sterile phraseology. If this was true in case of myself, who was personally committed to improvement of US-UAR relations, Mohamed could imagine effect on others in USG who did not feel so personally involved. I would not be at all surprised, I continued, if Jarring were getting equally fed up with GUAR attitude and tactics.
3. I had been extensively briefed by McCloy on his conversation with President Nasser. I had noted with interest Nasser’s statements which envisaged a process whereby various instruments respecting cessation of belligerency, withdrawal, etc., were arrived at and then put in escrow until whole package was ready for simultaneous implementation. Perhaps this did not represent any basic change in UAR position but it did have some refreshing nuances and implicit recognition that some kind of negotiating process was essential. Mohamed referred to FonMin’s three proposals re implementation of resolution after Israel had agreed to implement. I said this was all very well but it was negative, stale and sterile. It seemed to me that if someone in GUAR could say to Jarring what Nasser had said to McCloy, it was just possible Jarring would have some new elements to work with. I recalled that in absence any real progress, it quite likely Swedish Government [Page 316] would be inclined ask UNSYG release Jarring return to his normal diplomatic duties.
4. Mohamed undertook to convey foregoing to his Minister.
5. Mohamed said Nasser had highest regard for McCloy and had thoroughly chewed out both FonOff and Fawzi’s office for almost letting his visit to Cairo fall between stools.
- Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1967–69, POL US-USSR. Secret; Priority; Exdis. Repeated to Amman, Tel Aviv, and USUN.↩
- Telegram 154986 to Moscow, April 29, summarized a luncheon conversation that day between Ambassador Dobrynin and Assistant Secretary Sisco. The conversation ranged over a number of UN issues and focused on the Jarring Mission. Dobrynin indicated that the UAR continued to tell the Soviet Union that the principal difficulty in getting peace talks started was Israeli unwillingness to agree to implementation of Resolution 242. (Ibid.)↩