Page:Ford, Kissinger, Jordanian King Hussein - August 16, 1974(Gerald Ford Library)(1552753).pdf/15

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

-15-

hours to get them together for the President. They both insisted on seeing him separately to speak frankly with him before they would agree to see him jointly.

Prime Minister Rifai: I know, that's just the way Fahmy has been with us.

The President: Secretary Kissinger and I have spent a good bit of time lately focussing on foreign affairs problems, but particularly on the Middle East. Now, then, I would like to assure you, just as I made clear in my speech on Monday night, that we will continue the policy we have pursued in the past up to now. I can assure you that what I said I really meant. We have in Secretary Kissinger a strong, able, dedicated, wise, and effective Secretary of State. We will work in tandem and keep the momentum going. Any break now would be an invitation to those who want to destroy progress. How we continue the momentum Secretary Kissinger will work out as we go. But our program is dedicated to keeping up the momentum and hopefully arriving at our objectives which today remain as they were under President Nixon.

Secretary Kissinger: We are according very high priority to Jordan. We fully agree that strong support will be given. This will not be simply moral support as we talked about it in Aqaba. We took no position then and it will take some hard pressing to move the Israelis. We are prepared now to do this. To make progress we will be required to undertake a major diplomatic effort. At lunch we will discuss the staging and timing of these efforts.

One reason we will have to be most careful about the