Officials here said today that the Washington treaty talks appear to have hit their most serious snag yet, with Egypt’s demand for “linkage” to a specific and detailed timetable of implementation of the West Bank autonomy scheme. But the same officials insisted that their basic optimism is unchanged. They still firmly predict that a peace treaty will be signed with Egypt before the December 17 deadline–three months after the signing of the Camp David accords.
The officials stressed, however, that Egypt’s demand was entirely unacceptable to Israel and was regarded as a deviation from the Camp David frame-works. Israel had indicated willingness to set about negotiating the autonomy scheme with Egypt soon after the treaty talks are concluded. But the government says it is in no position to make hard and fast time commitments regarding the implementation of the various phases of the autonomy and certainly not to brook any “linkage” between that implementation and the implementation of the Israel-Egyptian treaty.
WHY LINKAGE IS FEARED
Israel’s fundamental fear is that the West Bank scheme might, for objective reasons, become delayed in which case, were any tight “linkage” language permitted in the treaty with Egypt, Cairo could claim that the treaty had been materially breached, enabling her to breach in turn the “normalization” provisions. Israeli policymakers noted with concern that under the new Egyptian demands, Israel would have to spell out now a commitment to have the autonomous council functioning within nine months, exactly the time span provided by the projected Israeli-Egyptian treaty for the interim withdrawal in Sinai and the establishment of full and normal diplomatic and other relations between the two countries.
The Cabinet will meet in special session under Premier Menachem Begin’s chairmanship Tuesday, following the Premier’s return from North America. Another meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, with the participation of Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and Defense Minister Ezer Weizman. The assumption is that the Thursday session will be crucial, with Begin and the negotiators pressing the Cabinet to endorse the compromise wording that has been worked out by them.
EGYPTIAN POSITION CALLED ‘OBSTACLE’ TO TREATY
The present situation is that the Cabinet has not yet approved a broadly worded brief paragraph contained in the preamble to the draft treaty, which refers to the need to conclude a comprehensive settlement in the Middle East and puts the Israeli-Egyptian treaty in that framework. Dayan, Weizman, and a reluctant Begin recommended endorsement last week of that paragraph, but the Cabinet preferred to delay its decision until Begin’s return.
The new Egyptian demand, however, goes for beyond this broad reference to “linkage” in the preamble. The Egyptians are seeking, in a separate Begin-Sadat exchange of letters to accompany the treaty, a specific timetable of West Bank implementation. This morning the Cabinet held its regular weekly meeting. It heard a report from Acting Premier Yigael Yadin on the latest developments. Cabinet Secretary Arye Naor publicly termed the Egyptian position a deviation from Camp David and “unacceptable.” He said it put an obstacle on the agreed road to peace. But the ministers deferred a more thorough examination of the situation at the Washington talks pending Begin’s meeting with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance tonight just before he leaves for Israel.
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