President Carter’s special Mideast envoy, Alfred Atherton, left Israel for home today without having achieved a significant breakthrough on the legal-textual wrangle in the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty that he has been attempting to resolve. Premier Menachem Begin voiced the government’s “regret” today that Egypt had rejected proposals which Atherton conveyed to it at the end of last week “with the agreement of the government of Israel.”
Speaking briefly to reporters after the weekly Cabinet meeting, Begin appeared to confirm the widespread prediction among observers here that talks would now be held on a higher level, presumably between U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Prime Minister Mustapha Khalil of Egypt and Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan of Israel. “There is no dead end,” Begin said. “We are hopeful that the talks will be resumed. “Possibly the level on which they are held will change.”
Atherton is to report to Vance on the results of his mission. Observers here expect a pause of a week or two before the U.S. decides on the next stage.
In a short statement on the Atherton talks, the Cabinet noted that Israel was “ready to continue the negotiations.” Dayan, at Ben Gurion Airport enroute to France for an official visit, said that. in fact both Israel and Egypt had expressed their desire to continue the negotiations. Both sides, Dayan said; refused to accept each other’s proposals but both wanted the talks to go on Dayan also indicated the prospect of the talks now talks now moving to “a higher level.”
Observers here do not believe that there is a realistic prospect of another summit meeting between President Carter, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and Begin in the near future. The U.S. would want to ensure — through ministerial talks first — that such a summit, with its commitment of Presidential prestige, was guaranteed to succeed before embarking on it, the observers feel. Dayan said that Vance, too, would want to make sure that another round of talks under his chairmanship would not end in failure.
NO PROGRESS ON KEY ARTICLE
Israeli sources told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that Atherton had made virtually no progress in Cairo on the key Article VI, paragraph five (the “priority of obligations” clause) in the draft peace treaty. The Egyptians balked of the proposed U.S. letter to Israel which would seek to explain the treaty Article in such a way as to limit the instances of legitimate Egyptian intervention in a future Arab-Israeli war to cases of Israeli pre-emptive actions against an Arab state.
There was no resolution, either; according to the sources, of Article IV (the “review clause”), even though Atherton had secured from Jerusalem, during his eight days of talks here, an agreement that the “review” (of the security arrangements in Sinai) would be mandatory after a reasonable period had elapsed. But there apparently was some shift on Article IV, with Egypt no longer insisting on a five-year deadline for the review.
Higher level talks, which would presumably be held in mid-February, would take account of these matters but would be expected to focus chiefly on the still unresolved “linkage” complex which is seen, both here and in Cairo, as the most significant remaining stumbling block on the rood to a treaty.
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.
