The Administration’s chief spokesmen at the White House and State Department appeared today to soften President Carter’s assertion yesterday that he “wants” the Israeli-Egyptian peace process “expedited” and would “not hesitate” to call another summit conference if that became “necessary.”(Israeli officials said today in Jerusalem in reaction to Carter, that Premier Menachem Begin would willingly participate in another summit meeting with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt.)
White House Press Secretary Jody Powell, responding to reporters questions, said today that developments between Israel and Egypt would not “by any means” make a summit meeting “inevitable.”
Carter made his remarks in an address in Atlanta at ceremonies honoring the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and again to reporters as he boarded his plane to return to Washington. They seemed to signal a reversal of what appeared to be the U.S. position when Secretary of State Cyrus Vance told a press conference last Thursday that “we are taking our time” to find ways to reconcile the differences between Egypt and Israel.
Only two days later, the U.S. stepped up the pace of its Middle East activities when the State Department announced that Ambassador Alfred Atherton, President Carter’s special envoy to the Middle East, will go to Israel today and from there to Egypt to attempt to overcome the differences between the two countries over the American peace treaty draft. Atherton will be accompanied by Herbert Hansell, the State Department’s legal advisor, and David Korn who is in charge of the Department’s Israel Desk.
CAN’T OFFER MOTIVES
Asked today what prompted Carter’s statements in Atlanta, State Department spokesman Hodding Carter said “I can’t offer motives” as to “what has happened,” but “both sides have expressed willingness to complete the (peace) process. “White House aides said earlier that Carter decided to interject his Middle East comments at the King memorial during his flight to Atlanta yesterday morning.
Powell, who was pressed as to the significance of the President’s remarks, told reporters today that “it is our view that we are always willing to do what we can to bring peace to the Middle East and the resultant benefits that will flow from it” He added, “But whether or not there will be peace will be determined by the governments of Egypt and Israel. That is the bottom line on the matter.” “He repeated that caveat later when he observed that the President had underscored our willingness to do everything we could but in the final analysis if there is peace in those two nations they will have to be the ones who will bring it about.”
Asked when the President might call another summit meeting, Powell said “It is extremely premature” to decide “under what circumstances, but I think all the parties would probably share the view there would need to be some narrowing of differences or evidence of flexibility in order to make such a get-together worthwhile.”
When a reporter asked if there was any doubt that Israel and Egypt would ask Carter to take steps, including a summit meeting, to reach agreement, Powell said that the developments be make a summit “inevitable” or that such a meeting would inevitably be “successful.” He cautioned further that even “success” for Atherton’s latest mission “is certainly not pre-ordained–nor is it almost pre-ordained.”
CARTER OPTIMISTIC ABOUT MISSION
Carter, for his part, expressed optimism about Atherton’s mission. He said he was “sure” that it will lead to fresh talks at the foreign ministers level and “if necessary I will not hesitate to invite President Sadat and Prime, Minister Begin to meet with me again to get a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.”
He told his Atlanta audience that “this week we will dispatch another delegation to the Mideast to resolve the last elements of differences on language of the peace treaty itself. And then we will address a very major political question of how to carry out the fullest terms of the Camp David accords. At that moment, it being a political question, I am sure this will be elevated at least to the Secretary of State level.”
(Begin was quoted as having told a visiting Canadian delegation in Jerusalem today that Atherton’s mission might lead to a renewal of peace talks on the ministerial level.)
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