Mubarak’s Proposals Welcomed

Political sources here today welcomed proposals by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt for direct talks between Israel and a joint delegation composed of Palestinians and Jordanians.

An emissary of Mubarak, Ossama El-Baz, one of his closest advisers, was expected here this evening, apparently with a message from the Egyptian President who leaves for Washington in two weeks to meet with President Reagan on March 12 (Reports from Cairo tonight said El-Baz might not be arriving in Israel today.)

The sources here said Mubarak proposed the direct talks as an alternative to an international conference on the Middle East which is favored by the Soviet Union and the Palestine Liberation Organization and opposed by Israel and the U.S.

But according to an interview with Mubarak, published in The New York Times this morning, the Egyptian leader’s proposal was for direct talks between Israel and a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation as only a first step, to be followed by an international conference in which the Soviets and all other parties concerned would participate.

The Times quoted Mubarak as saying “An international conference could be the last stage as a blessing of the solution.”

IN LINE WITH CAMP DAVID ACCORDS

The sources here said Mubarak’s proposal, as they saw it, was in line with the Camp David accords which stipulated that Palestinian representatives would be members of a Jordanian delegation in the negotiations for Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Those negotiations have not materialized because Jordan and the Palestinians have refused to participate in them without preconditions.

The composition of the Arab delegation is also an issue because Israel has vowed never to deal with the PLO which it regards as a terrorist organization. But even Premier Menachem Begin’s government at the time was prepared to overlook the political records of Palestinian members of a Jordanian delegation, including any formal connections with the PLO.

In recent weeks, Israeli officials tended to dismiss Mubarak’s suggestions as public relations gestures. But Israeli-Egyptian contacts have improved of late and there is a tendency to view Cairo’s proposals as more substantive. Mubarak sent an envoy to Rumania last week to meet with Premier Shimon Peres who was visiting Bucharest. El-Baz will be the second Mubarak emissary to see Peres in little more than a week.

STATEMENTS BY MUBARAK

According to The New York Times interview, Mubarak declared his willingness to host an Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian meeting in Cairo. But he also urged the Reagan Administration to invite the parties to Washington to lay the ground work for direct peace talks between them. Mubarak told the Times that he was willing to attend such a meeting, in Cairo or “anywhere” that was agreeable to all parties.

With respect to Israel’s refusal to have any contacts with the PLO, Mubarak said a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation need not include known members of the PLO. “The PLO has lots of people on the West Bank. Let us be practical,” he said.

Mubarak also told the Times that he was not urging the U.S. to recognize the PLO or to put pressure on Israel. He emphasized repeatedly the need to be “practical.”

MUBARAK’S PROPOSALS SEEN AS POSITIVE

Few official comments were available during the day about Mubarak’s proposal of direct Israeli-Jordanian talks. Peres said this evening that Israel should examine this idea thoroughly and positively. Minister-Without-Portfolio Ezer Weizman said in a radio interview that the present contacts with Egypt should eventually lead to a summit meeting between Peres and Mubarak.

He described Mubarak’s proposals as “positive, certainly interesting,” and noted that these were part of the process which began in the late 1970’s — when then President Anwar Sadat made his historic visit to Jerusalem and addressed the Knesset — and has since then been frozen.

According to analysts here, Mubarak made his proposals in order to achieve an agreement in principle which he could bring with him to Washington. The Voice of Israel reported tonight that the idea of direct talks to be held in Cairo was conveyed to Peres and Weizman by Mohammad Abdallah, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of Egypt’s Parliament, when they were in Bucharest last week.