Eban: Interim Accord on Canal is Last Chance to Save Waterway from Oblivion

Foreign Minister Abba Eban warned yesterday that an interim agreement to reopen the Suez Canal represented Egypt’s last chance to save the historic waterway from oblivion and regain the revenues so important to Egypt’s economy. Eban’s remarks were taped on an interview broadcast Sunday after he left on an eight-nation African tour. He said Israel is still waiting for Egypt’s reply to its latest proposals which were conveyed to Cairo by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Joseph J. Sisco on May 8. Sisco visited Cairo a second time after he and Secretary of State William P. Rogers conferred with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem on May 6-7. Eban said the Israeli proposals were its final ones. He said he saw no reason why his government should offer further concessions to Cairo for an interim agreement. According to Eban “The entire balance of concessions so far is one of concessions by Israel. Egypt is not being asked to give up anything–neither the cease-fire line nor anything else that is under her control.”

Eban said he regarded an interim agreement per so as “far more important than the canal issue itself.” He said an interim agreement would be “a test case, an experimental station for the very feasibility of peace.” He warned that if the canal were to be reopened and subsequently closed again because of tensions in the region, “the world of navigation, economics and commerce would decide to forget the very existence of the canal,” He predicted that “no nation would be prepared to invest–insofar as its oil and shipping plans are concerned–in an adventure that blows up every few years. The whole world is getting used to the absence of the canal.” Eban ruled out Israel’s acceptance of United Nations guarantees in return for further concessions. “The UN cannot guarantee anything, for it has no power,” he said, “The UN is a platform, a forum for discussion and debate, not an instrument of security.”