Discreet Messenger to the Middle East

GUNNAR JARRING is a model of the classic diplomat: discreet, discerning and infinitely patient. His reticence with the press is legendary. Once when he answered a newsman's question about the Middle East with a tight-lipped "No comment," U.N. Under Secretary-General Ralph Bunche swore that Jarring had been misquoted. "Gunnar would never say that much," declared Bunche.

As U Thant's special representative to the Middle East for more than 2 1/2 years, Jarring, who speaks nearly a dozen languages, including Arabic, Russian and French, has conducted the U.N.'s intermittent search for peace in the Middle East. Because Arab leaders adamantly refuse--for the time being, at least--to bargain with the Israelis face to face, Jarring's critical task is to explain each side's position to the other. His skill at doing just that is one of the few things the two sides have agreed on. "Jarring has a remarkable capacity for registering a conversation with all its nuances," says an Israeli diplomat who has dealt with him. "He must have a built-in tape recorder in his mind; he can sit for hours and absorb what he is being told, and report it without the slightest deviation."

Jarring's determination to remain "an impeccably behaved Western Union messenger," as an observer put it, disturbed some who participated in his unsuccessful round of indirect talks. When he saw that he had the trust of both sides, there is a chance that he might have broken the log jam by expressing his own opinion. But Jarring is convinced that the two sides must find ways of living together of their own accord, and can do so if kept in touch by a determined go-between. In that role Jarring performs heroically: while headquartered on Cyprus during the 1967-68 talks, he made at least 22 trips to Jerusalem, 15 to Cairo, 14 to Amman and four each to Beirut and New York.

Born on a farm still run by one of his brothers, Jarring, 62, was called into the army on the eve of World War II. He was posted to the Swedish embassy in Ankara because of his knowledge of Turkish, which he had learned as a student at Sweden's Lund University. On a later assignment in Teheran, he spent off-duty hours hiking the countryside on language-studying trips. Once, when he had wandered across the Uzbekistan border by mistake, he reportedly spent a couple of nights in a Russian jail. One of his favorite relaxations has been the compiling of glossaries, including one on the Uzbekistan language.

He usually works in the book-lined study of the sea-coast bungalow where he and his wife Lillian spend their vacations. Their 21-year-old daughter Eva laughingly refers to the telephone in the summer home as "the hot line." It rang two weeks ago when U Thant called to summon Jarring to New York to embark upon yet another round of what is generally regarded as the world's most difficult diplomatic mission.

From 1958 to 1964, Jarring served as Swedish ambassador in Washington. Since then he has been Ambassador to the Soviet Union, but has now begun his fourth leave of absence to perform U.N. chores in the Middle East. As usual, he uttered not a single word about his plans, hopes or expectations. His only public statement on the Middle East situation was made during his 1967 round-robin travels. Once, on leaving Cairo, he said: "I am optimistic." On arrival in Beirut he at once sought to correct any impression that his Cairo conversations had been encouraging. "I am always optimistic," he said.

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