Government officials said today that there was nothing new in the “peace proposals” made by Egyptian President Gamal Nasser in an interview published in the current issue of News week magazine. Sources here noted that Col. Nasser adroitly avoided such vital questions as Israel’s right to free passage through the Suez Canal. He spoke of free passage through “international waterways”, but he considers the Suez Canal to be Egyptian territorial waters, they said. Similarly, they pointed out, Col. Nasser’s interpretation of “a just solution” of the refugee problem is that all Palestinian refugees of the 1948 war and their offspring should return to Palestine, thus driving out the Jews.
A report in Time magazine that the Israel Cabinet decided in secret to establish 33 fortified settlements in occupied Arab territory was denied today by Cabinet secretary Michael Arnon. Mr. Arnon said there was no secret Cabinet meeting on the matter and that details of the Time report were incorrect.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman said today that while there was nothing much of “significance” in the interview given by President Nasser to News week, the United States still found the interview encouraging in that Nasser stated a desire for peace. State Department spokesman Robert Mc-Closkey said, “We welcome gestures of this nature,” but “we do not attach much significance to the substance of his remarks. However, it is encouraging that President Nasser was willing to go on record with his terms for peace.”
In the interview, President Nasser proposed a five-point peace program that would be contingent for its implementation on Israel’s withdrawal from the territories occupied during the June, 1967 war.
He said that if Israel withdrew from the occupied territories, he would offer: a declaration of non-belligerence; recognition of the right of each country to live in peace; the territorial integrity of all countries in the Middle East, including Israel, in recognized and secure borders; and freedom of navigation in international waterways. Col. Nasser did not make clear whether his fifth point, a just solution of the Palestinian refugee problem, was a condition for the other four points. “The United Nations has said over and over again, the right to return or compensation,” Col. Nasser said.
The Egyptian leader did not guarantee that he would take directly to Israeli representatives if a withdrawal were accomplished but did not reject the possibility. He noted that Arabs and Israelis met directly during the armistice negotiations following the 1948 Middle East War and said, “We are prepared to do so again.” He stressed that there was possibility of direct talks unless Israel withdrew.
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