Eban Says Egyptian Intransigence on Peace Moves Has Worsened Recently

Abba Eban, Israel’s Foreign Minister, declared here tonight that not only had Israel been met by an “obturates refusal” by the Arabs to discuss an end to the Middle East stalemate but also that “the most recent definitions” of Egyptian policy “are more negative than those of a year ago.” Speaking at a dinner opening the Joint Palestine Appeal drive, Mr. Eban said that when the full story of the past 18 months – the period since the 1967 Six-Day War – was revealed, it would show that Israel’s pursuit of peace had been “constant, versatile, strenuous – and unilateral.” He asserted that Israel had “scorned no procedure, neglected no contact, refused no possibility of serious dialogue.” He charged that Egypt, “which provoked the war, now obstructs the peace. There has been a refusal to negotiate directly, a refusal to confer under (United Nations) Ambassador (Gunnar V.) Jarring’s auspices, and now a refusal to formulate positions and attitudes on the specific issues involved in peacemaking.” This was a reference to a memorandum submitted by Mr. Eban to the Egyptians through Dr. Jarring in which Israel posed a series of questions about Egypt’s position on outstanding issues.

The Foreign Minister asserted that the latest information was that “Cairo requires Israel to abandon her security without gaining peace, that we return to the precise conditions of vulnerability which placed our existence in peril in the unforgettable summer days in 1967, that no secure and agreed boundaries be negotiated, that no Egyptian recognition be given to our maritime rights whose violation brought the Middle East to war and the world to universal anguish.” He added that no Arab response had come to the Israeli proposal for a conference of Middle Eastern and other countries to work out a five-year plan to solve the Arab refugee problem or to “our readiness to negotiate agreements on all the matters mentioned in the Security Council resolution of November, 1967,” which gave Dr. Jarring his mandate. (Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem said today that Egypt was presenting a facade of reasonableness to the press and world opinion while taking a very tough and intransigent line in private diplomatic exchanges, including their contacts with Dr. Jarring. The officials said only the most restrained parts of Egypt’s reply to Secretary of State Dean Rusk’s reported seven-point Middle East peace plan had been “leaked” to the press. The actual Egyptian reply was much longer and demanded complete Israeli withdrawal behind the pre-June, 1967 armistice lines as a prior condition for any other step, they said. Egypt refused outright to consider any steps that might lead to a peace agreement, even in the spirit of the November 1967 Security Council resolution, according to Foreign Ministry officials. They described the Egyptian note to Mr. Rusk as “arrogant and stubborn” containing not a single new positive element.)