Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXI, Near East Region; Arabian Peninsula

102. Telegram From the Department of State to the Consulate in Aden¹

Washington, September 22, 1967, 2057Z.

42401. Aden 344.² View uncertainties South Arabian situation, Dept does not believe action should be taken which might convey impression either USG special interest in particular South Arabian group or certainty early recognition any government which may emerge (re final para reftel). With these caveats, however, we perceive no objection your letting it be known on appropriate occasions to representatives various South Arabian groups that USG hopes circumstances will permit establishment friendly relations with whatever government emerges in South Arabia, but that this will of course depend on attitude such government toward USG.

Rusk

1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1967-69, POL 13 ADEN. Confidential. Drafted by Brewer and approved by Davies. Repeated to Jidda and London.
2. In telegram 344 from Aden, September 21, U.S. Consul William Eagleton described a meeting with NLF representative Ali Nasser in Aden and stated that an NLF-dominated South Arabian Government would probably find its place in the radical Arab nationalist camp, although opportunism might keep it on reasonably good terms with the British as long as the United Kingdom was a major source of aid. Eagleton concluded that as long as the NLF political orientation was fluid, it would be in the U.S. interest to make it known that the establishment of friendly relations with whatever government emerged in South Arabia would depend on that government’s attitude toward the United States. (Ibid.)