Begin to Clarify Issue of Open Borders at Meeting with Sadat

Premier Menachem Begin of Israel expressed surprise today at Egypt’s announcement that its borders with Israel would not open when EI Arish is restored to Egyptian sovereignty this weekend but that this would happen only eight months later. Begin said he would clarify the mother with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt when they meet over the weekend.

On a previous occasion, when Egyptian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Boutros Ghali had said that borders would only open 15 months later, Sadat had assured Begin by telephone that this was not correct and that borders would open immediately. Sadat himself had suggested that the Israeli Premier announce the border opening at the press conference in EI Arish this weekend.

Begin spoke at a press conference this afternoon, the first full day of his private three day visit here. He adopted a conciliatory attitude, saying, “We do not want to impose ourselves on Egypt,” and praised Sadat as a courageous man whom he would not wish embarrass.

MEETING WITH BRITISH LEADERS

Reporting on his lunch with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at 10 Downing St., Begin said that, like her predecessor, James Callaghan, Mrs. Thatcher was a friend of Israel and the Jewish people. He said they had agreed to work for closer bilateral relations, for peace in the Middle East and the safeguarding of freedom.

At the lunch, Lord Carrington, the Foreign Secretary, brought up the Jewish settlements on the West Bank which Britain claims are illegal. Begin said he defended their legality, but if he had failed to convince the British ministers they must agree to disagree.

Asked what would happen if the Soviet Union, as a Security Council member vetoed the renewal of the mandate of United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) in Sinai, Begin said that it had already been agreed with the Americans that a multi-national force would be formed “outside the Security Council.”

He renewed his offer of talks with Israel’s other neighbors but said there was a consensus in the Knesset that “we shall not descend from the Golan Heights into the valley.” Asked by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency if this left open the prospect of a partial pullback on the Golan Heights, Begin said, “I will not add or subtract from that statement.”

Begin began his visit to England last night in which the former Irgun Zvai Leumi leader hopes to remove any lingering misunderstandings between himself and Britain. He was given a triumphal welcome by a mass Jewish audience at Central Hall, Westminster, where a Habonim choir greeted him and his wife, Aliza, with songs of peace as they joined Anglo-Jewish leaders on the platform. Begin told the gathering that he believed officer Arab states would follow Egypt in making peace with Israel. Despite the latest refusal of peace talks by Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, Begin said Israel should never take no for an answer.