Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan reported to the Cabinet yesterday that the Arab states still have not replied officially to the U.S.-Israeli working paper on Geneva conference procedures. Dayan noted that there seems to be intensive consultations by the “confrontation states” but he would not predict what their ultimate response will be.
Officials here do not expect the Arabs to approve the paper without change. But they believe that with American encouragement, the Arabs could be brought to accept the working paper’s principles and that subsequent haggling over verbal formulations could lead to the resumption of the Geneva talks. The paper, in its present form, represents Israel’s basic position for going to Geneva: no participation by the PLO; no negotiations over a Palestinian state; and no automatic withdrawal by Israel to its 1967 borders. If these principles remain unaltered, Israel is prepared to consider proposals for changes and amendments to the working paper, officials say.
BEGIN, CARTER EXCHANGE LETTERS
Government sources acknowledged that there has been an exchange of correspondence in recent days between President Carter and Menachem Begin. They insisted that the correspondence contained re-affirmations of the U.S. commitment to Israel and did not demand that Israel agree to changes in the working paper. According to one report, Begin’s latest letter to the President contained a carefully but firmly worded assertion that Israel would reject any attempt to broaden the scope of the “united Arab delegation” that was agreed upon in the working paper to take part in the opening session of the Geneva conference when it reconvenes.
The Arab states are believed to be pressing for a substantive negotiating role for the united Arab delegation that would include non-PLO Palestinians. The working paper, as it now stands, provides for the conference to split into working groups when the actual negotiating process begins. One of the working groups would consist of Israelis, Jordanians and Egyptians with Palestinians included in one of the Arab delegations. According to the terms of the working paper, this group would “discuss” to preclude any negotiations at which the question of a Palestinian state would be raised.
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