Henry's Hegira

A subtle private shuttle

First came a two-hour tete-`a-tete with Anwar Sadat, at the Egyptian President's villa in his home village of Mit Abu el Kom in the Nile delta. Then there was a hastily arranged New Year's Day flight to Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, for talks with President Mohammed Siad Barre. After more discussions with top Egyptian officials in Cairo, Henry Kissinger jetted at week's end to Jerusalem for a three-day visit that was to include a dinner given by Israel's Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir and a session with Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Next on the former Secretary of State's schedule were stopovers in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Morocco.

Was the pioneer of Middle East shuttle diplomacy back on the bargaining trail? Not at all, he said at a press conference in Mit Abu el Kom. "I did not come here to negotiate. I did not come here with any message. I did not come with any ideas to speed up any peace process."

Kissinger's 17-day hegira was a long-planned private tour. He was riding not in an Air Force plane but a corporate jet, in company with his wife Nancy, CBS Chairman William Paley and Brooke Astor, the New York socialite who gave a postelection party for Ronald Reagan. Yet both Kissinger's itinerary and his comments to the press left the impression that he was trying to help fashion a Middle East strategy for the incoming Reagan Administration. After his talks with Sadat, Kissinger announced that the Egyptian leader would be received as an "honored friend" by the new Administration and that the special Egyptian-American relationship forged under Jimmy Carter would continue. Said Kissinger: "It is my view that the President-elect will have a very clear understanding of the strategic necessities of the area and will be very sensitive to the advice that he will get from President Sadat."

As it happened, Kissinger's tour spotlighted one important difference between Sadat and Reagan: the timing of the participation of Jordan's King Hussein in talks on Palestinian autonomy for the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Reagan has said that he would like Hussein to join the negotiations as soon as possible. But Egypt wants Jordan brought into the talks only after a broad agreement on the status of the occupied territories has been obtained from Israel. Speaking to reporters with Kissinger, Sadat argued that once Egypt and Israel have set the parameters of self-rule, the Palestinians can then negotiate the long-term status of the West Bank and Gaza through their own representatives.

Hussein, for his part, was not anxious even to appear to be discussing an early entry into the talks. A possible Kissinger visit to Jordan was scrapped when word was passed from Amman that the King would be unavailable to meet with him. Nor was the ex-Secretary's journey hailed by the other important party that has remained outside the Camp David framework, the West Bank and Gaza Palestinians, who have been taking direction from the Palestine Liberation Organization. In Cairo, Kissinger suggested that the P.L.O. might be offered a place at the bargaining table "at a later stage, when some progress has been made." But P.L.O. leaders have long believed that Kissinger's past diplomatic efforts have left the Israelis more entrenched in the occupied territories than ever, and they were unimpressed. "Kissinger," complained Bassam Abu Sherif, spokesman for the hard-lining Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was "the wrong man to send. Nobody trusts him."

Back in Washington, members of the Reagan transition team were also a bit nonplused by the Kissinger tour. "Emphatically a private journey," insisted one Reagan aide, adding, "We will of course be interested in hearing what he learned. Dr. Kissinger's travel stories are always informative." Some Reagan aides complained that the trip was awkward for them, since Reagan has not yet formulated his Middle East policy. Moreover, they pointed out that Kissinger's own status in the Reagan camp has never been defined, and the notion that he was "representing" the President-elect could cause confusion abroad. All in all, they would have been happier if Kissinger had skipped the junket--or at least seen more of the pyramids and less of the press. qed

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