Begin Expected to Name Additional Senior Officials to Cairo Team; Dayan May Join Talks at Later Stag

Premier Menachem Begin is expected to name additional senior officials to the Israeli negotiating team that will attend the Cairo conference next week. The delegation, headed by Eliahu Ben-Elissar, Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office, and Meir Rosenne, legal advisor to the Foreign Ministry, is scheduled to leave for Cairo Saturday night. The conference is due to open Dec. 14.

Officials here did not rule out the possibility that Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan might join the Cairo talks at a later stage. Briefing the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee today, Dayan said Israel was prepared to raise the level of its Cairo delegation by “the most senior” official if Egypt asked for it and extended the appropriate invitation. He said the diplomatic level of the talks was determined by the Egyptian invitation addressed to him last month. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt indicated disappointment, in an American press interview this week, that the Israeli delegation will consist of officials rather than Cabinet-level policy-makers.

It is assumed by observers here that Ben-Elissar and Rosenne will be empowered to discuss a draft peace plan in Cairo and to define the areas of dispute with Egypt. The second phase of the negotiations will depend on Egypt’s decision whether Cairo or Geneva should serve as the location for a conference that would go into the details of a proposed peace settlement.

Dayan answered criticism from members of the Knesset committee that they were being kept in the dark about recent political developments. He acknowledged that he deliberately limited the information about the Cairo conference because of alleged leaks from committee sources. He referred most questions to Begin.