Begin Rejects Sadat’s Target Date

Premier Menachem Begin today rejected Egyptian allegations that Israel was responsible for the delays in the autonomy talks. In a letter responding to a lengthy letter sent him by President Anwar Sodat over the weekend, Begin insisted that Israel was observing the Camp David accords. The allegations that Israel was creating obstacles in the autonomy talks, Begin wrote, were based on a mis-interpretation of the accords.

He rejected the claim that if an agreement was not reached by May 26, Israel should be held responsible. The date of May 26, Begin wrote, was only mentioned in the joint Begin-Sadat letter to President Carter which accompanied the peace treaty, as the date by which the talks should be completed, but not as a final date for the completion of the talks.

Begin said last week that the peace agreement was signed three months later than the original date set in the Camp David agreements and that a similar delay in concluding the autonomy talks was not out of the question.

The Cabinet did not discuss Begin’s reply to Sodat at its meeting today. Begin merely briefed it on the contents of Sodat’s letter, the first political message from Sodat since Israel and Egypt exchanged Ambassadors last month.

SODAT ISSUES WARNING

In his letter, Sadat said that the autonomy talks should reach “substantive results” by May 26. Otherwise, he warned, a shadow will be cost on the entire peace process. Although Sodat’s letter was described as “firm,” Sodat reportedly noted the need to advance in the peace process. The Egyptian letter was handed over the weekend to Ambassador Eliahu Ben-Elissar in Cairo. The Egyptians made a point of inviting media representatives to the event in order to dramatize the effect. At the same time, the Egyptian media resumed its attacks on Begin personally.

Sodat’s letter, the attacks in the Egyptian press, and interviews his Premier Mostapha Khalil with the Israel” media — as well as the uncooperative atmosphere encountered by Israeli journalists in Cairo — are regarded here as a new Egyptian effort to create an atmosphere of crisis before the Washington meeting next month between Begin and President Carter and Sadat and Carter.

Cairo’s official Mideast News Agency reported over the weekend that Sadat would visit Washington on April 8. Begin is scheduled to arrive there on April 13.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian delegation dealing with normalization of relations between Egypt and Israel, headed by Gen. Taha Mogdoub, arrived in Israel today as did another delegation for the autonomy talks, headed by Ambassador Abdul Latif. The autonomy delegation is here to prepare for the plenary session to take place in Alexandria later this week. U.S. special Ambassador Sol Linowitz was also due to arrive here today.