Failure of a Mission

The United States acknowledged today that special Ambassador Alfred Atherron’s 12-day effort to bridge the gaps between Israel and Egypt on the so called minor issues in the American draft treaty text had failed. The State Department’s chief spokesman, Hodding Carter, indicated that the next move in the negotiations would be based on all of the controversial matters outstanding both within and outside of the treaty text itself.

In announcing that the U.S. will continue to communicate with both parties through diplomatic channels on the next steps, Carter ruled out speculation that because decisions on the treaty cannot be made at a lower level, another Camp David style summit meeting is the logical next step.

At the some time, he indicated that another summit was in the realm of possibility when he recalled President Carter’s remarks at the Martin Luther King memorial ceremonies in Atlanta two weeks ago that a session on the foreign ministers level was likely to follow the Atherton mission and that he would not hesitate to call another summit conference if he felt it was necessary. Most observers here believe, however, that a second summit would not be considered unless detailed agreements were reached beforehand assuring its success.

Hodding Carter said that Atherton was able to confer only briefly with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance on his return from the Middle East today because the Administration is pre-occupied with the visit of China’s Vice Premier, Teng Hsiao-ping. Carter said that Atherton’s mission was to see whether “limited issues could be resolved prior to resuming higher level negotiations on the other outstanding issues.” He emphasized that “it now appears, however, that all the remaining issues are of such deep concern to the parties that it may not be possible to deal with them separately. They may have to be discussed and resolved at the some time,” the State Department spokesman said.

Atherton spent nine days in Israel and three in Egypt seeking a resolution of the Egyptian demands that the treaty be reviewed within five years after signing on the military arrangements in Sinai and Egypt’s refusal to accept provisions in the treaty that the treaty with Israel would supercede treaties Egypt might have with other Arab countries. The linkage of the Israeli-Egyptian treaty with implementation of the autonomy plan for the Palestinian Arabs on the West Bank and Gaza Strip was the major issue that the Atherton mission did not attempt to resolve. Such linkage is not incorporated in the treaty itself but Egypt made on exchange of ambassadors with Israel–which is incorporated in the treaty–contingent on implementation of the autonomy plan.

WOULD NOT ASSESS RESPONSIBILITY

Carter would not “assess responsibility” for the failure of Atherton’s mission. But Israel’s reported movement toward Egyptian demands while Egypt refused to move at all indicated to some observers that Premier Menachem Begin had grounds in saying that the failure to make progress during Atherton’s visit was due to the Egyptian government’s rejection of the proposals submitted to it. Carter said, however, that “neither side has accepted the other’s proposals.”

Observers close to the negotiations indicated that a large part of the responsibility must be borne by President Carter for his having endorsed Egypt’s demands in December when he praised President Anwar Sadat for being “generous.” in making them. Thus, the observers said, Sadat was in a position of not having to demand less from Israel than what President Carter had found to his liking.

Later, Vance, shuttling between Cairo and Jerusalem, presented Egypt’s demands to the Israelis and Israel rejected them. That U.S. action and Israel’s reaction brought relations between Washington and Jerusalem to an all time low in the Carter Presidency.

However, statements by Carter to Israel’s new Ambassador Ephraim Evron and to NBC commentator John Chancellor and a passage in his State of the Union address last week referring to Israel as a great nation that the U.S. is committed to support, served to ease the strain.