Assistant Secretary of State Alfred Atherton said in Cairo today that there were still differences between Egypt and Israel as the two parties resumed negotiations, according to reports from Egypt’s capital where the joint military talks resumed yesterday. Atherton made his remark after meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Kaamel in which he relayed Israel’s ideas on a declaration of principles for a Mideast peace accord. According to the reports, Atherton and Kaamel, following their discussion, had an hour-long talk with President Anwar Sadat and Vice President Hosni Mubarak.
Meanwhile in Jerusalem today, Premier Menachem Begin met with U.S. Ambassador Samuel Lewis to hear of Atherton’s talks in Cairo. Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan described the American mediation role as “maintaining the negotiations in artificial respiration.” Speaking before the Knesset Finance Committee, Dayan said that at the beginning it seemed that Egypt accepted the Israeli peace plan as a basis for negotiations, but later it turned out not to be the case, “and negotiations were not easy,” he said.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
