Israel had a mixed reaction to President Anwar Sadat’s speech to the Parliament of Europe in Luxembourg yesterday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Naftali Lavie expressed satisfaction with the Egyptian leader’s reaffirmation of his commitment to the Camp David accords and peaceful negotiations as a means of solving problems.
But he took issue with Sadat’s support of Palestinian self-determination and his remark that “the creation of a Palestinian entity” was “an important stepping stone in the peace process.” According to the spokesman, those terms were a deviation from the Camp David agreements. He also said Israel does not know what Sadat had in mind when he spoke of European guarantees and “mutual recognition of Israel and the Palestinians.”
The Israelis seem irritated by Sadat’s apparent reluctance to resume the autonomy negotiations for the West Bank and Gaza. That is expected to be one of the subjects on the agenda of Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s meeting with Secretary of State Alexander Haig in Washington next week.
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