Defense Minister Shimon Peres declared today that if Israel was to give into Egypt’s demands that she evacuate the Mitle and Gidi Passes, Israel would be left without a defense line in the Sinai. “As long as Egypt does not end the state of war with Israel we cannot evacuate further than the line which goes through the eastern side of the Passes,” Peres said in an interview with Maariv. “These Passes are the anchor to which the Israeli Army’s” defense is attached, he stressed.
Peres said that Israel wants in return for an evacuation of the western part of the Passes an agreement by Egypt that she would not go to war for a certain period of time. The aim of this agreement would be for Egypt to concentrate on Her internal economic and social affairs rather than on war with Israel.
Chief of Staff Gen. Mordechai Gur said Friday that the Passes were important for both Egypt and Israel. But he said that Egypt’s insistence that Israel evacuate the Passes entirely may indicate that Egypt is planning some offensive action, Gur noted that if Israel holds the eastern section of the Passes it would not be a military threat to the Suez Canal.
Peres, in the newspaper interview, said it would be advisable to reach an agreement also with Syria or with the United States over Syria. But he said because of the Golan Heights topography there can be no withdrawal on the Golan as in the Sinai.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
