Haig: U.S. Committed to Continue As Full Partner in Mideast Peace Process

American participation in the Sinai peacekeeping force is “testimony” to the United States commitment to continue as a full partner not only in the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, but also in the peace process in the Middle East, Secretary of State Alexander Haig said here last Friday.

Haig made these remarks at a ceremony at the State Department at which he and Leamon Hunt, director general of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), signed the agreements for U.S. participation in the Sinai force.

Hunt, a retired U.S. foreign service officer, said the U.S. was the last of the II countries in the MFO to sign the ogreement. He said 2,400 soldiers are already in the Sinai and the rest of the MFO force, which will total some 2,500 will arrive early this week.

Hunt said that training has already begun and the MFO will be ready to take over on April 25, the day set for Israel’s final evacuation from Sinai. “We’re confident that we can do the job that Egypt and Israel have asked us to do,” Hunt said. He said he was “confident” that this “international effort” would help Egypt and Israel “bridge the confidence-building process” and move towards full peace and normalization.

ROOTS OF PEACE ARE TAKING HOLD

Haig said that the ceremony, at which representatives of many of the II countries in the MFO were present, celebrated both the Egyptian. Israeli peace and the “effort to carry peace forward to strengthen it.” He said that in the three years since the peace treaty was signed at the White House, “the roots of peace and normalization have begun to take hold.” He noted that “over three decades of tension and animosity between two great nations has steadily declined as normalization has begun.”

Haig, who spent a good part of last year trying to get nations to participate in the MFO, said the “breadth of participation” in the Sinai force is “testimony first to the vision and wisdom of the leaders and of the people of Egypt and Israel.” He said it is also “testimony to the continuing American support, not just for the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel itself but also for the peace process.”

The Secretary of State declared that “Americans today can take just pride in the fact that they have been full partners in this momentous and historic process.” After the ceremony, Haig walked over and shook hands first with Ambassador Moshe Arens of Israel, saying “congratulations,” and then shook hands with Ambassador Ashraf Ghorbal of Egypt.

The II nations participating in the Sinai force are: Australia, Britain, Colombia, Fiji, France, Holland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, United States and Uruguay.