Deny Vance Will Soon Announce Date Place for Resumption of Peace Talks

The State Department emphatically denied today wire service reports that Secretary of State Cyrus Vance will soon, announce the date and place for the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt. “The story as run is inaccurate,” the Department’s chief spokesman, Hodding Carter, told reporters at today’s briefing. “I have seen the reports and heard of the sources also. It is erroneous. There is no time set, no meeting set and in fact nothing to confirm that story,” Carter declared.

The reports attributed to sources in Washington, said that the official announcement of the resumption of peace talks would be made after the State Department receives notification from Egypt that it is willing to continue the negotiations. The sources said, according to the reports, that this was expected by the end of the week and that the talks would be resumed in mid-January in Washington. The Israeli Cabinet announced Sunday that it was ready to resume negotiations and reports from Cairo said the Egyptian Cabinet reached a similar decision after a six-hour meeting today.

But the reports that an announcement was imminent of plans to resume the talks was characterized by the State Department spokesman as “a kind of hot shot story based on the kind of float that people want because of the possibility.” He added, “We would always like to see these talks resume, see the process continue and see a treaty concluded. But somebody is jumping the gun on factual matters and almost everything else involved, at least in these wire services.” Nevertheless, Carter confirmed that Vance has no plans to travel outside of Washington during the month of January.

Today’s report from Cairo quoted Egyptian Prime Minister Mustapha Khalil as saying that any treaty with Israel would be linked to a timetable for Palestinian self-rule on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Israeli Cabinet said Sunday that it was willing to discuss the self-rule issue but would not agree to a timetable. Khalil, for his part, stressed that Egypt was not setting any conditions for the resumption of negotiations.

In his reported remarks today, he said the treaty should provide for normal relations between Egypt and Israel “on an equal footing without any side obtaining a privileged position.” He added, “Therefore it is not acceptable that the treaty should lead to any advantage over other agreements or charters.” Israel has demanded that Egypt accept Article VI of the proposed treaty which would give it precedence over earlier treaties that Egypt has with Arab countries.