674.84A/6–650
The Ambassador in Egypt (Caffery) to the Department of State 1
No. 1315
Subject: Major General Riley’s Visit to Cairo
Major General Riley, Chief United Nations Military Observer in Palestine, has informed us that his visit to Egypt had the following objectives:
1) To induce the Egyptians to forego demands for evacuation of Bir Qattar and Umm Reshresh by the Israelis as a prior condition before entering into political talks with the Israelis. He had seen Colonel Cherine, as the brother-in-law of the King and as the Egyptian military officer most intimately familiar with the Palestine situation. Colonel Cherine pointed out it was impossible for Egypt to give up on this point. (Despatch 1017, May 6.)2 It would be impossible to sell the country the idea. If the Israelis would voluntarily withdraw, 70% of the obstacles towards peace talks with Israel would be removed.
General Riley said that the Egyptians from a technical point of view were 100% right about Israeli seizure of Bir Qattar after the signature of the armistice. They had a poorer case on Umm Reshresh. His own view was to get this problem laid on the table at a general political discussion rather than make its settlement a prior solution for Israeli-Egyptian talks.
2) To convince the Arab League and Egypt, which he believed was the Arab League, to forego their insistence on the discussion of the refugee question on the basis of the 1948 United Nations resolution prior to peace talks with Israel. Col. Cherine had indicated that there was no prospect that the Egyptians would relinquish this demand.
The General also said that he had just made a tour of the armistice frontiers and for the moment all was quiet. Any incidents which took place were incidents which would take place in peacetime over any frontier. They were largely concerned with shepherds trying to move their flocks across the frontier and raiding parties going across the frontier to steal and to rob.
He also spoke of a project regarding Gaza which he had in mind. He was proposing to Israel that as a gesture towards the solution of the refugee problem they turn over about a ten kilometer strip along [Page 923] the eastern borderline of Gaza. This area contained several Jewish settlements but if the Israelis would relinquish it it would be possible to solve the refugee problem by moving 150,000 refugees into Jordan and settling the remainder in this ceded area. He was not optimistic that the Israeli government would listen to him but he intended to raise it and use the argument that without some concessions on the part of Israel the Arabs would have no basis on which to sell peace to their people. He had urged the Israelis again and again that they should give generous terms to the Jordanians in order to convince the Egyptians and the other Arab states that the Israelis were serious about making peace.
He said that Jordan had dropped peace talks for the moment because of Arab League pressure. Nothing would be done until after June 12. After that date much would depend on whether the Arab League expelled Jordan or not.3
- This despatch was repeated to London, Tel Aviv, and Arab capitals.↩
- Not printed; but see footnote 1 to the memorandum of conversation by Ireland, p. 883.↩
- The Egyptian Foreign Office handed an aide-mémoire of June 8 to General Riley presenting Egypt’s case on Bir Qattar and Umm Beshresh. The General believed that the Egyptian case had considerable validity and stated he would present it to the Israeli Government, pointing out that Israeli evacuation of these points would greatly enhance the possibility of opening political talks with Egypt. The General was said to have little confidence that he would persuade the Israelis to take such action. The aide-mémoire is attached to transmitting despatch 1351, June 9, neither printed (674.84A/6–950).↩