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Press Conference of Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary of State
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Press Conference of Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary of State
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Digitized from Box 14 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 17, 1975
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(Vail, Colorado)
THE WHITE HOUSE
PRESS CONFERENCE
OF
HENRY A. KISSINGER
SECRETARY OF STATE
MOUNTAIN HAUS
12:03 P.M. MDT
MR. NESSEN: Let me read you two statements,
and then Henry will be here to brief.
Secretary of State Kissinger will travel to the
Middle East next week, leaving Washington on August 20.
The discussions the United States has been conducting with
the parties concerned, looking toward an interim agreement,
have progressed to the point where the parties and the
President believe it would be useful for the Secretary of
State to travel to the area in an effort to bring the talks
to a successful conclusion. The Secretary's visit to the
Middle East will include several Arab countries and Israel.
The President has asked me to read you a
statement.
The President says that he has worked many
hours with the Secretary of State analyzing and assessing
the situation in the Middle East, and the President has
now directed the Secretary of State to return to that
region in an effort to bring the discussions to a success-
ful conclusion.
The President is hopeful that the parties will
successfully conclude an interim agreement, which not only
would be in the best interest of the parties involved,
but also in the best interest of the entire Middle East
region, and indeed of the whole world.
The President is sure that all Americans join
him in wishing the Secretary of State success on this
critically important mission.
The Secretary of State.
SECRETARY KISSINGER: We will go straight to
the questions.
MORE
- 2 -
Q
Mr. Secretary, can you tell us some of the
issues that remain outstanding that you are going to be
working on?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: We have made good progress
on many of the issues. We have agreement in principle on
some of the lines, but some details remain to be
negotiated.
We still have to work out the protocols and
the details of the various disposition of forces after
another interim agreement has been made.
There will be complicated issues of civilian
administration, and there are one or two issues of principle
there remaining outstanding. However, it is the President's
judgment, the judgment of the parties and my own that in
the light of the good will that has been shown by both
parties in recent weeks, in light of the progress that
has been made, the remaining differences are surmountable,
and this is the attitude with which I am going there.
Q
Mr. Secretary, would you say that peace is
at hand in the Middle East?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: I haven't used that line
for four years. (Laughter)
Q Where are you going, exactly?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: Wait a minute. You don't
think I am finished with a 30-second answer. I haven't
even placed my verb yet. (Laughter)
This, of course, is not a peace agreement. This
is an interim step toward peace between Egypt and Israel,
if it should succeed. The issues between Israel and
the other countries remain to be resolved, and the United
States remains committed to a just and lasting peace, as
called for by the United Nations security resolution.
Both the United States and Israel and all the
other parties that we are in touch with agree that this
will not be the end of the process, but a stage in the
process. Nevertheless, if it succeeds, it will be, and it
can be, a very big step. It would be the first agreement
that has been made between an Arab State and Israel not
under the immediate impact of military hostilities, the
first one that will require some complicated arrangement
of cooperation.
Therefore, we hope that it will be a step toward
that just and lasting peace, which we are committed to try
to bring about.
I think, Fran, you had a question.
MORE
- 3 -
Q
What countries are you going to, exactly?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: I am going first to
Israel. From there I will go to Alexandria, where
President Sadat will be. Then we will have a shuttle,
which we do not think should be as extended as the
recent shuttles have been because many issues of principle
have already been settled, but while I am in the Middle
East, I expect to visit Damascus, Amman and Saudi Arabia to
discuss with the other Arab countries our conception of
progress toward peace in the Middle East.
MORE
- 4
Q
Can you tell us who suggested a U.S.
monitoring team in the Middle East, and isn't this fraught
with danger, and I would like to know if it is tied to
any money agreements of aid to Israel?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: The idea of possible
monitoring team has as yet not been finally decided.
It is an issue that was first raised and which we have made
clear we would agree to do only if both of the parties
join in.
We have also made clear that the American parti-
cipation would be of an entirely technical nature, that is
to say, we would man certain kinds of warning equipment whose
results would be given to both sides and the United Nations.
In other words, it would be an extention of the
U-2 flights we are now undertaking at the request of both
parties. Any Americans that are going to the Middle East
would go only if approved by the Congress. It would be
volunteers. They would have no military mission of any
kind, and their primary function, their exclusive function
would be to give warning information to both sides and to
the United Nations and their numbers would be very small.
Q
Who suggested it and is it tied to any aid?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: The issue of warning
stations depends on the issue of the aid, The issue of the
aid in turn to Israel has been discussed with Israel for
many months, as we have, for that matter, discussed aid
programs with Arab countries for many months.
We will submit in September, I would expect,
an aid package for the entire Middle East, including
Israel and those Arab countries that have been the recipients
of aid last year and this has beenentrained as part of the
reassessment, in any event.
Q
How much money does it entail?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: The President has not yet
made the final decision about the amount that we will request
from the Congress, but this grows out of technical studies
that we are undertaking jointly as to the needs of the
parties and particularly the needs of Israel.
Q
Mr. Secretary, along side whatever agreements
may be reached between Egypt and Israel, will there also be
third-party agreements between the United States and both
of these parties and what will their nature be?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: We still do not
have any actual documents that have been agreed to between
the parties. All we have are certain agreements in
principle about the outlines of a possible agreement.
MORE
- 5 -
In the disengagement agreements, there was a
formal agreement, then there was a protocol that was
attached to that agreement, then there was separate
understanding between the parties in which the United
States acted as an intermediary and trasmitted
assurances from one party to the other.
Everything in which the United States is involved
will be submitted to the Senate, the Foreign Relations
Committee and to the House International Relations Committee.
There will be no secret understandings that are not submitted.
Q
Mr. Secretary, have you set yourself a
time limit for this particular trip?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: I have to be back on
September 1 or 2 to speak at the Special Session of the
General Assembly. That I have to do in any event no matter
what the state of the negotiations is.
Now it is theoretically possible I might go
back to the Middle East from there, but I hope that we can
make sufficient progress in ten days. But I don't want to
operate against a deadline. These issues, even when there
is agreement in principle, the issues are enormously
complex and there are so many different aspects of civilian
as well as military arrangements that have to be made that
I would hate to tie myself too closely.
Mr. Beckman?
Q
I have two questions.
One, can you tell us if the American volunteers
will be armed, and secondly, when your earlier shuttle
failed, I seem to recall your saying you wouldn't go back
unless there was a 90 percent chance of success.
Is there a 90 percent chance of success?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: You have to remember even
if you say there is a 90 percent chance of success, if it
fails, it fails 100 percent. We think there is a good chance
of success whether you express it at 80 percent of 90
percent, that is just guessing at it. We think there is now
a good chance of success, or the President would not have
authorized my return.
What was the other question?
Q
Will the American volunteers be armed?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: We have not yet worked out
this arrangement. If they are armed, it would be only for
self-defense. It would not be for military operations. It
would only be personal arms for really very immediate self-
defense. They will not be authorized, under any circumstances,
to conduct military operations or to defend themselves
against military forces. If they have arms, it would be against
marauders, but they are not there for a military function,
and we are talking about very small numbers of about 100 or SO.
MORE
- 6 -
Q
Mr. Secretary, will this force be a
unilateral American force or will it be part of a United
Nations force?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: It is very difficult for me
to talk about something that has not yet been agreed to
and finally worked out. In any event, there will be a
United Nations force standing between Israel and Egypt in
a zone of a greater depth than has ever existed between
the hostile forces in the Middle East.
So, these would not be in direct contact with
either of the hostile parties. They would work more
closely with the United Nations.
Q
Has the United States agreed in principle
to compensate Israel for the loss of the Sinai oil
fields?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: We are discussing with
Israel not so much compensation for the Sinai oil, but
arrangements for alternative supplies of Sinai oil if
Israel has difficulty arranging them for itself. We
will take into account, in arriving at the economic aid
figure, the additional foreign exchange requirement for
Israel in the purchase of oil.
Q
So, we are going to pay for the replace-
ments? That is what it amounts to?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: It isn't going to be done
exactly on that basis, but it will be taken into account.
Q
Mr. Secretary, if I may change the subject,
could you explain to us the situation surrounding the
transfer of Ambassador Carter out of the State Department?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: To the best of my knowledge--
and I am not always told everything in the State Department--
Ambassador Carter has not been transferred out of the State
Department. We have avoided any comment on a situation
which, quite frankly, has not always been reported with
full accuracy.
The problem that arises in the case of terrorist
attacks on Americans has to be seen not only in relation
to the individual case but in relation to the thousands of
Americans who are in jeopardy all over the world. In
every individual case, the overwhelming temptation is to
go along with what is being asked.
MORE
- 7 -
On the other hand, if terrorist groups get the
impression that they can force a negotiation with the
United States and an acquiescence in their demands, then
we may save lives in one place at the risk of hundreds of
lives everywhere else.
Therefore, it is our policy in order to save
lives and in order to avoid undue pressure on Ambassadors
all over the world, it is our policy -- that American
Ambassadors and American officials not participate in
negotiations on the release of victims of terrorists, and
that terrorists know that the United States will not
participate in the payment of ransom and in the negotiation
for it.
In any individual case, this requires heart-
breaking decisions.
It is our view that it saves more lives and more
jeopardy and that it will help Ambassadors, who can then
hide behind firm rules rather than leave it to the individual
decision.
I think Ambassador Carter is a distinguished
Foreign Service he is not a Foreign Service officer.
He is a distinguished Ambassador, and he has served well
in Tanzania. I do not want to engage in a debate in
which his concerns are very easily understandable and which
we are trying to handle in as compassionate a manner as we
can, and without penalizing any individual concerned. But,
there are important issues of principle involved here.
Q
What is going to happen to Ambassador Carter?
He has the impression he has been transferred out of the
State Department.
SECRETARY KISSINGER: I think that Ambassador Carter
would be better advised to deal with the responsible
officials of the State Department than to engage in an
independent publicity campaign of his own.
We are reluctant to put forward our view of the
situation because we do not believe it would help anybody.
We are trying to maintain a principle that terrorists cannot
negotiate with American officials, and we are doing this in
order to protect the thousands of Americans that could
become victims all over the world if we once started that
process, and not only the American terrorists and students,
but also American officials.
Q
Mr. Secretary, one more question on this.
I understand that President Ford wrote a letter to
President Nyerere of Tanzania thanking him for his cooper-
ation in this problem?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: That is right.
- 8 -
Q
And that that cooperation included
releasing two of the terrorists of the organization
that kidnapped the four young students. Now, isn't that
cooperating with terrorists?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: After the event, President
Ford did indeed write this letter, and in each individual
case it is a matter of judgment of how rigidly that line
is drawn and at what point one believes that the line has
been breached.
In any event, Ambassador Carter has not been
transferred out of the State Department.
Q
But out of his post?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: I really am trying to avoid
a detailed discussion of the issue, I think in the
interest of all parties concerned.
Q
Can we get a kind of outline of what the
accords have been in terms of what has been printed? Is
that the passes and the oil fields?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: I don't think I can go into
something in which there are so many items that have only
been agreed in principle, and so many items that are not
yet agreed to at all.
Some of the things that have been printed are
roughly accurate. Some of the things that have been
printed are not accurate. I would not go firmly with any one
of them.
Yes?
MORE
- 9 -
Q
I was going to ask the same question. Are
the reports of the agreement in principle for a pullback
from the passes and the oil fields in exchange for a
guarantee of non-beligerance accurate? Is that the
general scope of the agreement?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: I do not think the issue
of a formal issue of non-beligerance is now before us, and
I think it would be better not to go into the precise
details of the geographic separation until we are a little
further ahead in the negotiations.
But it is known, of course, that the negotiations
have involved the passes and the oil fields, and, as I have
already pointed out in answer to another question, that some
of the economic discussions with Israel involved the problem
of how to deal with Ierael's foreign exchange problems in
the absence of the oil fields, so that is a speculation that
would be proper.
Q
Are you going to see Mr. Gromyko on this
trip?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: I don't expect to see him, no,
not on this trip. I expect to see Mr. Gromyko next when he
comes to the General Assembly in the middle of September.
Q
Between now and then, will there be any special
arrangements or efforts to keep the Russians posted?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: We will stay in touch with
the Soviet Union and keep them generally informed.
Q As you pointed out, if there is an interim
agreement, can you give us a more specific idea of the
territories Israel may have to give up?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: As I pointed out on other
occasions, in a lasting peace, a lasting peace will have to
settle the frontier of Israel not just with Egypt, but with
all of its neighbors. It will have to take into account the
Palestinian problem. It will have to spell out in great
detail the reciprocal obligations for peace on the part of
the Arab countries. And it will have to include guarantees,
international, multilateral, bilateral, whatever may be
devised for the final arrangements.
This interim agreement, which we are now talking
about, is a step, we hope a significant step towards this,
but it will still be only a partial -- we will only have
traveled a part of the road.
Q
Mr. Secretary, in answering Jim Naughton's
ques ion, you said the formal issue of non-beligerancy, which
is not a question here, but what is Israel going to need in
the way of some guidance, and what is Israel going to get?
You have talked about the oil fields and the passes.
MORE
- 10 -
SECRETARY KISSINGER: I do not think I ought
to be into the provisions of an agreement which has so far
been negotiated in a rather cumbersome process through
Washington in which there are no documents yet agreed to by
both sides, but only some concepts and general lines, and
that will all be apparent when the agreement is negotiated,
hopefully in the not too distant future.
Q
On the question of compensation or whatever
it may be called for theloss of the oil fields, are you
talking about American compensation, American aid? Are you
talking about Arab aid or some other form?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: I have the impression, but
I have to confirm that when I get out there, that the
Arabs are not yet ready to compensate Israel for any loss
of oil revenues.
We are talking about the fact t hat in setting the
aid level for Israel, we will take into account the foreign
exchange losses that Israel will suffer if, as a result of the
agreements, it gives up the oil fields.
I think I will take one more question.
Q
Can you give us any idea of whether you
heard from the Israeli Cabinet this morning?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: This announcement is based
on the decision of the Israeli Cabinet to invite me to come
to Israel.
Q
Is there any question about it? This morning
there was a question about it.
SECRETARY KISSINGER: Yes, there was in the
sense that the Israeli Cabinet had to approve what the nego-
tiating team and we worked out during the course of last
week and, until the Israeli Cabinet had formally approved
the results of last week's negotiations, we could not announce
that a shuttle could, in fact, take place.
Q
When are you leaving here?
SECRETARY KISSINGER: I am leaving here tomorrow
afternoon, and I am leaving Washington Wednesday around
midnight.
THE PRESS: Thank you.
END
(AT 12:26 P.M.
MDT)