Halpern Says U.S. Should Demand Concessions from Egypt Before Resuming Relations

Rep. Seymour Halpern, New York Republican, told the House today that the United States should require the Nasser regime to make “fundamental concessions” in order to qualify for the restoration of formal diplomatic relations. He said that the State Department “has made it clear to President Nasser that he will receive great quantities of American dollar aid, food shipments, technical assistance, and generous trade relations if he will allow us through the Egyptian door again.”

The New Yorker said the Department should inform Congress whether, in return, Nasser had been asked to conduct direct peace talks with Israel, halt its military buildup, guarantee passage through the Suez Canal to all, comply with President Johnson’s five points for a Middle East settlement and “publicly acknowledge to his people that he lied when he accused the United States of having participated in the Six-Day War.” The State Department must answer these questions, he said, “to dispel the impression that nothing more is sought than some statements in a magazine article — which have already been partially disavowed in Cairo.”

(The Washington Post reported yesterday from Cairo that the Look Magazine interview with President Nasser in which Nasser indicated agreement with the statement that the charge of American participation was a misunderstanding resulting from misinformation plus old suspicions, had been altered in the Cairo press to give an entirely different impression. Instead of the “you could say that, yes” of the magazine interview, the Cairo version of Nasser’s statement was “you may say so, but others may say something else.”)

To restore relations with Egypt without obtaining these basic points. Rep. Halpern said, “will announce to the world that we reward aggression and have turned our backs on Israel, this country’s only friend in the Middle East.”