Carter Charges That the Reagan Administration Has Failed to Move Ahead with the Camp David Process

Former President Jimmy Carter charged on the fifth anniversay of the signing of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty that the Reagan Administration has failed to move ahead with the Camp David process for a broader peace in the Middle East.

“I think we’ve not only not made progress in the Mideast, there’s been a retrogression in prospects for peace in the region,” Carter told reporters at a news conference yesterday during a visit to Southern Methodist University.

He called for “an American initiative at the top level” by either President Reagan or Secretary of State George Shultz to bring about a thaw in the chilly relations which have developed between Israel and Egypt since the outbreak of the war in Lebanon in June, 1982.

But while the former President was critical of the Mideast policies of the Reagan Administration, Carter said he was glad that the peace treaty which he was helpful in molding has survived three serious challenges in the past few years.

“Probably the most severe was the requirement that Israel withdraw from the Sinai and dismantle the settlements,” he said. “The next serious was (Egyptian President Anwar) Sadat’s death and his replacement by (Hosni) Mubarak. And a third severe test was the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.”

But Carter said he did not see any prospects for a broader peace in the region in the immediate future. He described the U.S. role in Lebanon as a total failure which has strengthened Syrian influence “and therefore the Soviet Union’s influence in the region.”

The former President said the U.S. has become an unreliable partner, partially due to the strategic agreements signed with Israel which has taken the U.S. out of the role of an unbiased negotiator and mediator. Carter said he did not feel that the efforts of a special Mideast Ambassador, such as Donald Rumsfeld, would win any serious concessions from leaders in the Mideast.