Ambassador Simcha Dinitz returned here from Israel late yesterday afternoon and immediately went into a meeting with Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger that lasted two hours. On emerging from the State Department, the Israeli envoy told reporters that he had conveyed to Kissinger the precise “questions” his government seeks answers to before it makes a final decision on a new interim accord with Egypt.
Dinitz said, in reply to questions, that the very process of seeking clarification represented progress but he would not say what the prospects were for an agreement at this time.
At the airport earlier, Dinitz told newsmen that the Israeli government could not make “important decisions” before it had all the available facts and clarifications. “This is the main purpose of my shuttling back and forth.” he said.
Dinitz, who was recalled to Jerusalem last week for consultations and attended Sunday’s Cabinet session at which the government decided to hold up any decision pending full clarification from Washington of Egypt’s ideas on the components of an interim agreement, said he was also discussing with Kissinger “the whole complex of bilateral relations between the United States and Israel.”
He rejected the suggestion that the U.S. was applying pressure on Israel to conform to Egyptian terms. “The word pressure doesn’t fit the situation,” he said, adding that when it comes to finding peace, Israel does not need to be pressured and in matters involving its vital security Israel would not succumb to pressure.
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