501.BB Palestine/2–1749
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Satterthwaite)
Subject: Israeli-Egyptian Negotiations on Rhodes.
| Participants: | Mohamed Kamil Abdul Rahim, Egyptian Ambassador |
| Mohamed El Kouny, First Secretary, Egyptian Embassy | |
| J. C. Satterthwaite, NEA | |
| Joseph Palmer, AF1 |
At the conclusion of a discussion on another subject, the Egyptian Ambassador expressed the hope that the United States would again use all its best influence to persuade the Israeli Government to reach an agreement at Rhodes. Upon my mentioning the fact that for the [Page 754] first time we understood that the Acting Mediator, Mr. Bunche, was optimistic and felt that the impasse had been broken, Abdul Rahim Bey indicated that the two sides were close to agreement. He felt sure that what progress had been made had been due to the efforts of the United States. He felt sure, however, that an additional push at this time from high levels was necessary in order to bring the armistice negotiations to a successful conclusion.
I told the Ambassador that the United States was using and would continue to use its best efforts with the Israeli Government to reach a reasonable compromise. On the other hand I wished to emphasize again the great importance which we attach to continued patience and good will on the part of the Egyptian Government. That Government had shown a commendable spirit and patience for several weeks now, but it was necessary that it continue to do so and make a genuine effort toward reaching a solution. If it did so I felt that there was every hope that an agreement might be reached. We both agreed that this was necessary in order to give the Conciliation Commission a good basis on which to carry on its work.
- Joseph Palmer, 2d, Acting Chief of the Division of African Affairs.↩