Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan met with Secretary of State William P. Rogers for 90 minutes this morning. He indicated to reporters afterwards that their discussion was a general review of the current situation in the Middle East and that the matter of additional U.S. arms for Israel was not raised.
“I asked for good relations to go on between America and ourselves–which we are enjoying now–and I hope they will go on.” Dayan said as he faced a battery of reporters and television cameras in the State Department lobby.
His account of his talk with Rogers failed to bear out earlier speculation here that the purpose of the Israeli defense chief’s visit to Washington was to seek more Phantom jets and other sophisticated military hardware. According to some sources, Israel wants the advanced weaponry in order to minimize the risks should it agree to pull back its forces from the Suez Canal in an interim agreement with Egypt to reopen the waterway. Such an agreement–or negotiations leading up to it–is believed to be the main goal of U.S. policy in the Middle East at the present time. (See separate story P. 1.)
WILLING TO NEGOTIATE TREATY OF ANY KIND
Dayan told reporters that he didn’t bring any new proposals for reopening the Suez Canal. “The only point is that we are willing, like in the past, to negotiate for peace–a complete peace treaty, an interim treaty, a partial treaty, a treaty of any kind. We are ready and willing to negotiate,” he said, Asked by reporters if Soviet-made SAM-6 anti-aircraft missiles were back in Egypt, Dayan replied, “So I read in the papers.” Asked if Soviet personnel were returning to Egypt, he shrugged and remarked, “I don’t think they left.”
Dayan was accompanied at his meeting with Rogers by Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin and Gen. Mordechai Gur, the Israeli Military Attache. The meeting was also attended by Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Joseph J. Sisco, and State Department aides. Dayan was scheduled to lunch at the Pentagon later today with Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Kenneth Rush.
Describing his meeting with Rogers, Dayan said, “We reviewed the Middle East situation again and again. Nothing practical was discussed, only an exchange of thoughts about what things are like and what can be made.”
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