Cabinet Accepts Carter’s Invitation for Second Round of Mideast Talks

Premier Menachem Begin announced today that Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan will, alone, represent Israel at the talks with Egyptian Prime Minister Mustapha Khalil and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance at Camp David, Md., later this month. Begin made the announcement following today’s Cabinet meeting at which President Carter’s invitation to a second round of talks at Camp David was formally accepted.

Begin also disclosed that the new talks will be held in two stages, with an intermission in between to permit Dayan and Khalil to report to their respective governments and receive further instructions. The feeling in policy-making circles here today was that whatever progress may be made at the new ministerial level talks, a second summit meeting between Carter, Begin and President Anwar Sadat would be required before an Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty can be signed.

(Carter hinted to visiting editors in Washington yesterday that he may be a participant in the new Camp David talks. In disclosing that the Israelis and Egyptians will be meeting with Vance, he remarked “and I’ll undoubtedly be meeting with them as well while they are here,” He did not say specifically that this would be at Camp David. According to Carter, Israel and Egypt have already resolved 95 percent of their differences but the remaining five percent remained “a basic deadlock.”)

The two-stage structure of the new talks was takers to mean that the first round will not be conclusive and that the final outcome will be determined when the negotiations resume after the intermission or, possibly, at a Carter-Begin-Sadat summit conference. This view was expressed by a Cabinet source in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today. The source expressed confidence that a treaty eventually would be concluded.

EXTENT OF DAYAN’S AUTHORITY

Begin told reporters that the issue of the extent of Dayan’s negotiating authority was not raised at today’s Cabinet session although the ministers had discussed “the question of how the Foreign Minister is to react. He will react according to the Cabinet decisions and, of course, he will be consulting with me,” Begin said.

Government sources said later that it was decided not to broaden Dayan’s authority Beyond what it had been in the Blair House talks in Washington last November when Dayan and Defense Minister Ezer Weizman headed the Israeli negotiating team. At that time, the instructions were for the Israeli negotiators to hear out the Egyptian and American views, to discuss various proposals with them and to report back to the Cabinet for instructions before committing Israel to any changes of position.

Weizman will be absent from the new round of talks and the Cabinet rejected suggestions that other ministers accompany Dayan. There had been speculation that Justice Minister Shmuel Tamir and Interior Minister Yosef Burg might attend. Aides to Dayan said he would not have objected. But sources close to Begin noted that Carter’s invitation referred specifically to Dayan and Khalil as the representatives of their respective countries and there was no reason therefore to send additional ministers, at least at this stage.

Dayan’s aides also said the Foreign Minister was satisfied with the Cabinet’s decisions and felt that he would be able to carry out his tasks in accordance with Carter’s invitation. The Army Radio reported this evening that there would be preliminary diplomatic contacts before the Camp David meeting, including talks with U.S. Defense Secretary Harold Brawn who is due in Israel Tuesday.