440. Telegram From the Embassy in Egypt to the Department of State1
46. When I called on Fawzi last evening Hussein was present. Conversation quickly shifted to subject of Palestine settlement. Fawzi said he had asked Trevelyan to talk to me and was glad I had come. He said his remarks to Trevelyan were in nature of exploration of two problems that were hindering better relations with West i.e. Palestine and Algeria. As regards Palestine he felt initially we should explore all possibilities to keep situation quiet. Egypt was cooperating in every way with such efforts. Secondly he felt that a new effort should be made quite secretly to find out how near or how far apart the positions of Israel and Egypt really were. If this gap could be made narrow enough through ultra-secret means then perhaps outside nations might find a way of bridging gap.
Unlike the talk with Trevelyan Fawzi did not circuitously approach problem of what “outside” states might be helpful. He named United States, United Kingdom, Russia, India and Pakistan saying France had been omitted for obvious reasons.
I asked Fawzi his idea as to procedure and he at first evaded question by going into substance. He spoke of Jerusalem, refugees, territorial adjustments et cetera giving positions much the same as he had given to Trevelyan and me last November (Embtel 9762). He later however, returned to my question saying that first stage should [Page 808] be very secret and possibly handled by agent from Washington. He gave as an alternative use of Hammarskjold but rather discounted this in his later remarks.
Fawzi stated he not putting forward proposition to be done in hurry but definitely wished to throw out idea to see what possibilities were. He said time had to be right and in this regard Egypt as well as other states might have a problem. He was obviously including US elections in problems connected with timing. When queried as to whether he envisaged latter phase through UN he first said he guessed it did not matter as long as results were achieved. His later remarks indicated however he thinking of UN action and in Assembly rather than SC. He said at one point he thought it might be fortunate that Assembly would not finish its work this autumn but reconvene early next January (again I think referring to US elections).
In reply my direct question as to whether other nations he had mentioned would know that secret negotiations were
underway he replied definitely not. During first stage when another effort would be being made secretly he felt only US and UK should know. If progress made there then could be discussions with US as to how to broaden out responsibility.
Fawzi said if Egypt were not worried about its relations with West it would probably let matter drift. He personally felt that it was too dangerous to allow this problem to drag on and said that frankly it was giving Moscow too great benefits in Middle East. Told Fawzi I unable give him any preliminary comment but would report his conversation to Secretary and Hussein of course could carry it personally. Fawzi said he seeing Nasser again this morning and might have additional word for me.
My feeling is that there is a chance today either Fawzi or Nasser will ask if Anderson can return. There was no mention of Anderson but Fawzi’s reference to “agent from Washington” (which he did not refer to in conversation with Trevelyan) probably indicates that he aware of past effort. Perhaps he did not mention it because of Hussein whom I believe still uninformed.
Our comments will follow after seeing today’s developments and discussion with Trevelyan.3
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 684.86/7–1156. Top Secret; Priority; Limited Distribution; Omega Handling. Received at 12:20 p.m.↩
- Vol. XIV, p. 781.↩
- See Document 447.↩