Our policy is to produce progress that returns Arab territory to Arab control, but gradually at a pace that doesn't produce paralysis of our foreign policy because of the domestic reaction. And we will not do it under Soviet pressure at all.
Eventually, there will be a return to the Geneva Conference, but that will produce a certain stalemate.
In the area of Iran, I think things have gone approximately as we foresaw.
Teng: May I insert a question here?
Kissinger: Certainly.
Teng: Have you decided with the Soviet Union when the Geneva Conference will be convened?
Kissinger: No.
Teng: I think the Soviet Union thinks it should be quicker and they will be attending.
Kissinger: Yes, we spent 4 months preparing for it, and then it met one day, after which we closed it. [Laughter] The Soviet Union always urges us to hold it. Eventually, it will have to take place. I don't think it can possibly be before March.
As long as the Arabs think they are making progress outside the Conference, they will be in no hurry to get there. No one wants it except the Soviet Union. They have an Ambassador in Geneva, Vinogradov, who spends all his time waiting for a conference that doesn't take place. We occasionally send Ambassador Bunker once every two months to keep him company there doing nothing. But we have not agreed on a resumption date. The earliest I could foresee would be March -- unless there is a total breakdown in the secret discussions now going on between Egypt and Israel and the other Arab countries and Israel through us. And I don't foresee such a breakdown.
On Iran, as I have said, things have developed in the direction of my discussions with Chairman Mao and the Prime Minister last year.
[Refreshments are brought in]
SECRET/NODIS/XGDS
