The Israeli Embassy has categorically denied a published statement attributed to Israeli Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin regarding a suggestion by Assistant Secretary of State Joseph J. Sisco for a plan leading to the reopening of the Suez Canal. The Washington Post, in a front page story, said last week that according to Rabin, Sisco “suggested to Israel a deep withdrawal from the Suez Canal and an Egyptian advance across the waterway to within 15 miles of the Israeli positions.” Staff writer Stephen Klaidman added that “These suggestions, made in Jerusalem earlier this month, are reliably understood to be unacceptable to Israel.” Klaidman did not say when or where or to whom Rabin disclosed Sisco’s reputed suggestion.
“Everything in the Post story as allegedly said by Ambassador Rabin on alleged proposals allegedly made by Mr. Sisco simply is untrue,” and Israeli press spokesman said last Friday. “They (the suggestions) have never been said anywhere.” The Post story said that the Sisco ideas allegedly referred to by Rabin were reportedly similar to those in a memorandum handed to the Egyptian government in May by the top American diplomat in Cairo, Donald C. Bergus. Sisco returned here from Israel a week ago after more than a week of consultations with top Israeli officials. Rabin returned here from Israel this past weekend. Both the State Department and the Israeli Embassy have repeatedly declined to be drawn into public discussion on the details of the Sisco meetings in Israel, citing commitments to that effect. Even officials who sometimes disclose points to newsmen in whom they have confidence have declined to discuss the Sisco talks.
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