Israel to Provide U.S. with More Detailed Statement of Its Territorial Claims

The government has decided to comply with an American request for a more detailed statement of its territorial claims than has been forthcoming up to now, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned today from very reliable political sources. The American request was put to Foreign Minister Abba Eban at his meetings last week with Secretary of State William P. Rogers and White House national security affairs advisor Dr. Henry Kissinger. Eban is expected to convey a statement on “territorial principles” to Rogers when he returns to Washington from his current visit to Latin America, the JTA learned. He was reportedly empowered to do so by Premier Golda Meir who decided to accede to the American request after consulting with her closest advisors. Political sources said Israel will inform the U.S. that its territorial demands as far as future borders with Egypt are concerned will be guided exclusively by strategic considerations but no such undertaking will be given with regard to borders with Jordan where “historical considerations are much more profound.” Political circles here said today that the U.S. has become entangled in conflicting promises to Israel and Egypt from which President Nixon must now extricate it. They said that Nixon to will have no choice but to tell President Anwar Sadat of Egypt that the U.S. is neither able nor willing to force Israel to commit itself to total withdrawal from the occupied territories without prior negotiations between the two parties.