Israeli circles reported today that the next meeting of the Israeli-Syrian Mixed Armistice Commission, due to be convened Thursday at Kibbutz Mahanayim, will be crucial and may indicate whether the talks could produce any results whatever. Continuation of the talks will depend entirely on the attitude the Syrians adopt at Thursday’s meeting, the fourth in the extraordinary session of ISMAC, summoned by United Nations Secretary-General U Thant.
The important question, as seen here, is whether the Syrians will be willing at last to settle down to discuss the sole item on the ISMAC agenda, as previously agreed to by both sides and adopted formally by both at the first of this series of Commission meetings, on January 25. That item would deal only with land cultivation rights in the demilitarized zones on the Israeli-Syrian frontiers. It excludes discussion of proposals made by Syria, calling for withdrawal of alleged Israeli “fortifications” in the disputed areas.
If the Syrians stick to the agenda, it is believed here that there is still a chance for a successful outcome of the negotiations. But the very continuation of the talks will be endangered if the Syrian delegates to the ISMAC meeting insist on dragging in extraneous issues. Lt. Gen. Cdd Bull, chief of staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, who first proposed the ISMAC’s convening to Mr. Thant, has made it clear that he wants the agenda to guide the meetings.
Israel has repeatedly and unequivocally stated its determination to consider during this phase of the negotiations only the set agenda, dealing with “practical arrangements for cultivation of farm lands and cultivation rights along the demarcation line” between Israel and Syria, agreed to in the armistice pact between the two governments in 1949.
Israel holds that is exactly what the agenda calls for and that, not by any stretch of the imagination, is the agenda possible of extension to a discussion including the fate of the demilitarized zones situated in sovereign Israeli territory. Both Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and Foreign Minister Abba Eban have over and over again emphasized that point.
SYRIANS WANT U.N. TO ‘FORCE’ ISRAEL TO GIVE UP SOVEREIGNTY
Israel’s misgivings have been exacerbated further by an article yesterday in Ul-Thawra, a semi-official newspaper in Syria, which called upon ISMAC to “force Israel to withdraw from the demilitarized zone.” The article added that, if the Mixed Armistice Commission “failed to do so, it will have lost sight of its responsibilities and will be unable to discuss any other question. “
Israeli circles point out that a direct Syrian threat is included in the article, reflecting the views of the ruling junta in Damascus. The article had stated further that, if the Mixed Armistice Commission proved itself “incapable” of forcing Israel’s evacuation from the demilitarized zones, “it will have no alternative but suspension of the meetings.”
Israel trusts that Gen. Bull, as chairman of all three previous meetings of the Commission, and chairman of Thursday’s scheduled resumption of the talks, will be able to get Syria to adhere to the agenda. That is absolutely necessary, Israeli circles say, not only for the success of the current talks but also as a precedent for any other meetings with the Arabs in the future.
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