Premier Yitzhak Shamir told the Inner Cabinet Wednesday to withhold any decision on the American peace plan until other parties, including the Soviet Union, indicate their views to Washington.
The premier briefed the Inner Cabinet — consisting of five Labor Party and five Likud ministers — on his talks with Reagan administration officials in Washington last week. He stressed the strong reservations he expressed to the Americans over Secretary of State George Shultz’s proposals, which include an international conference.
The discussion ended inconclusively. According to reports leaked from the meeting, the Labor ministers, led by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, did not insist on voting on the Shultz initiative.
A vote almost certainly would have been split 5-5 along party lines, and under Cabinet rules, a tie amounts to a rejection.
Labor apparently has not decided what tactics to employ in face of Shamir’s clear intention to put off an Israeli decision in the hope that the Arab parties or the Soviet Union will reject the American plan first. In that event, any decision by Israel would be moot.
Shamir addressed his Likud ministerial and Knesset colleagues earlier in the day. He warned it was too early to rejoice over the apparent setbacks to the American plan. “We are in the midst of a battle in the administered territories and the struggle against the Shultz initiative,” he told his Likud cohorts.
He claimed the initiative, if ever carried through, would cut Israel to “dwarf size.”
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