Dinitz Kissinger Confer on Egyptian Counter-proposals

Ambassador Simcha Dinitz told reporters after a meeting with Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger at the White House this morning that he had received Egypt’s counter-proposals for an interim agreement in Sinai and would relay them to the Israeli Cabinet in Jerusalem. There was no hint from any quarter as to the content of the Egyptian counter-proposals. They were apparently Egypt’s response to the latest proposals from Israel which were conveyed to Cairo last Sunday by the U.S. Ambassador Hermann Eilts.

There was no significance attached to the fact that the Israeli envoy met with Kissinger at the White House rather than at the State Department. The secretary was attending other meetings at the White House today.

COMPROMISE ON ‘HAWKS’ STILL SOUGHT

Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Robert Anderson told reporters today that the U.S. was “in touch with the Jordanian government and the Congress, primarily the Senate Foreign Relations Committee” on a compromise over the proposed sale to Jordan of a $350 million air defense

Anderson said “We are discussing Jordan’s reaction which we heard or read about with Congress today….Secretary Kissinger has not testified before any committee on the sale recently but he has been in touch formally during some of the meetings he has had with members of Congress. Obviously he is very much concerned about this bill and is an active participant in having it resolved.”

Meanwhile, the House International Relations Committee today gave the Ford Administration 24 hours to come up with a compromise on the sale of missiles to Jordan. The committee agreed to a one-day postponement on a vote to block the sale at the request of Republican members after hours of behind-the-scenes maneuvering by State Department officials to work out a solution that would satisfy opponents of the plan. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has scheduled for tomorrow a vote on a resolution to prevent the sale.

SURVEILLANCE PROPOSALS NOT RECEIVED

Anderson also commented on an American role in the advance warning surveillance system in Sinai in the event of an interim agreement between Israel and Egypt. Although such a role was reportedly part of Israel’s latest proposals, Anderson insisted that so far the U.S. has not received such proposals were made “we will examine it when we get it. Whether it would turn out to be technicians who will be military or civilian we have to wait and see.”

He also observed that “If we decide it will be in the national interest to participate in such a proposal, we will be in very close touch with Congress before anything is done about it.”

Anderson said yesterday that it was premature to say whether Kissinger would make any U.S. proposal that would be helpful in the Egyptian-Israeli negotiations. He also said the Secretary of State had not mentioned the possibility that President Ford would meet with either Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin or President Hafez Assad of Syria. when the President is in Europe this month for the Conference on European Security and Cooperation in Helsinki. But, Anderson added, he did not exclude the possibility that the Middle East would be discussed at the Helsinki conference.