Eban Says Egypt Response to Israel Probe Was ‘total Rejection of Peace’

Foreign Minister Abba Eban told the Cabinet yesterday that Egypt’s delineation of its stand on Middle East peace, made through United Nations special envoy Gunnar V. Jarring, was so rigid and so offensive in style that it precluded any reply by Israel. He said prospects for the Jarring mission depended on a change in the Egyptian position.

Mr. Eban also reported to the Cabinet on the recent meeting between Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Yosef Tekoah and Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Semyonov in New York. The Cabinet heard a detailed report from Defense Minister Moshe Dayan on his talk with President-elect Richard M. Nixon in New York last week. But it reportedly contained little information that Gen. Dayan had not already given to the press here and in the United States.

The Foreign Minister’s reference to the document handed to Ambassador Jarring by the Egyptian Minister, Mahmoud Riad, was his most detailed report yet on Egypt’s attitude. Mr. Eban has referred in public statements to increasing Egyptian intransigence. But the latest Riad document, replying to Israel’s memorandum, submitted through Dr. Jarring, which asked Egypt what it considered a “just and lasting peace,” was, according to Mr. Eban, a total rejection of peace. He told the Cabinet that it implied that: Egypt did not agree to sign a peace agreement with Israel; would not discuss recognized and secure borders; was not ready to observe Israel’s right to navigation through the Suez Canal; did not agree to any permanent arrangement to ensure Israeli navigation through the Straits of Tiran; rejected Israel’s independence and sovereignty and was not prepared to discuss any practical solution of the Arab refugee problem.

Mr. Eban said that Ambassador Tekoah had informed Deputy Foreign Minister Semyonov that Israel would not return to the pre-June 5, 1967 borders but that it was ready to negotiate with any Arab country on an agreement that would lead to secure, recognized boundaries and the cessation of all belligerency and hostile acts. The Government will consult further with Ambassador Tekoah and Gen. Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s Ambassador to Washington, later this month.

Both Mr. Eban and Gen. Dayan said they were unaware of any signs indicative of changes or new developments in United States policy toward the Middle East. Mr. Eban said that he himself and Israel Embassy officials in Washington have maintained contacts with members of the incoming Nixon Administration. The President-elect so far has given no new indications of the policy he will follow in the Middle East other than his remarks during the election campaign in October and November. At that time Mr. Nixon expressed support of Israel’s view that a Middle East peace could be achieved only through negotiations between the parties to the dispute and maintained that Israel should have a margin of military superiority over the Arabs to deter aggression.

Political circles here stressed that while Israel’s position for many years has favored improved relations between the U.S. and the Arab countries, it is believed that at the present time and under the present circumstances, a resumption of U.S. diplomatic relations with the Arabs could undermine Israel. They said this was so in view of the one-sided support the Arab states have from the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc countries.