Premier Menachem Begin met this afternoon with Robert Strauss, President Carter’s special Middle East envoy, to inform him of the Cabinet’s solid support earlier today of the Premier’s flat rejection of any proposed amendment or supplement to United Nations Security Council Resolution 242.
Strauss, who arrived here Friday in a Mideast shuttle venture to try to ease tensions between Israel and the United States, said on his arrival that the U.S. “might go forward with a resolution of its own” in the UN this week that would incorporate key statements of the past on Palestinian rights and general language on the issue similar to that agreed upon in the Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. According to the Camp David agreement “representatives of the Palestinian people should participate in negotiations on the resolution of the Palestinian problem in all its aspects.”
The Security Council is due to meet this Thursday to debate a Kuwaiti-sponsored resolution on Palestinian rights. The U.S. has said it would veto that resolution because it would modify Resolution 242 by calling for Palestinian self-determination and for a Palestinian state.
To avoid a veto which would antagonize the Arab world and possibly lead to a General Assembly session on Palestinian rights, Strauss told Israeli leaders Friday that the Carter Administration decided to offer a compromise resolution. Israeli leaders promptly rejected this move as a step toward wooing the Palestinians to the negotiating table and as a step toward legalizing the Palestine Liberation Organization as the representative of the Palestinians at the peace table.
Begin’s meeting today with Strauss at the envoy’s request took place shortly after Strauss returned from Egypt where he discussed the U.S. initiative and found President Anwar Sadat less than enthusiastic about the idea.
The Israel Cabinet voted unanimously today to support Begin, Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, Defense Minister Ezer Weizman and Interior Minister Yosef Burg who had met with Strauss Friday and informed him in unequivocal terms that Israel opposed any amendment or supplement to Resolution 242. Cabinet Secretary Arye Naor told reporters-thus confirming earlier reports-that Strauss had reported the U.S. intends to put for ward a new draft at the Security Council, and he had sought Israel’s agreement.
But the Israeli reply, as delivered by Begin and the top ministers, had been “unlimited rejection,” Naor said. Such a draft would be, Naor said in a formal statement, a contravention of a U.S. commitment given in September 1975, at the time of the Sinai interim agreement, and reconfirmed at the time of the peace treaty signing with Egypt last March. Naor also said it would contravene the Camp David accords.
DENIES SUMMIT MEETING
Before his meeting with Begin, Strauss appeared to scotch rumors that had surfaced here today that he would invite Begin to a tripartite summit in Washington in September with President Carter and Sadat-in order to thaw the coldness in Jerusalem-Washington relations. Strauss told Commerce Minister Gideon Patt he bore no such invitation, Israel Radio reported.
The envoy met with Patt to sum up some economic-survey work done here by a group of American industrialists who had flown here with him on his weekend trip. Strauss said the U.S. Administration intended to do all it could to encourage economic cooperation between Israel and Egypt, the radio reported.
Strauss also found time this afternoon, before his session with Begin, to tour East Jerusalem, with Mayor Teddy Kollek as his guide. He travelled in an American Embassy car, but with its flag removed-as has been the practice adopted by visiting American officials in the past when they visit across the “Green Line.” Despite persistent questioning by accompanying reporters, Strauss kept his opinions on what he saw and heard from the Mayor strictly to himself during the tour, which included Jewish, Christian and Moslem sites.
Observers noted that Strauss, who was due to depart tonight for Washington, had failed to dispel Israeli concern that the U.S. was tilting toward the PLO. Meanwhile, there was no indication that Strauss and Israeli leaders discussed Andrew Young’s resignation last Wednesday as U.S. Ambassador to the UN nor Young’s and U.S. Ambassador to Austria Milton Wolf’s meetings with PLO officials Young, as Security Council President for August, will preside at the Security Council debate on the Kuwaiti-sponsored resolution. Strauss, himself, may go to New York for the Council debate.
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