Israeli Premier Due in Washington Thursday Carter Announces That Begin Has Accepted His Invitation T

President Carter announced today that he has invited Premier Menachem Begin to come to Washington and discuss the deadlock in the Israeli Egyptian peace negotiations and that Begin will arrive here Thursday night. Carter said that after the talks with Begin he will decide whether to invite either Egyptian President Anwar Sadat or Prime Minister Mustapha Khalil to join the discussions.

Carter’s announcement was made in an opening statement to his press conference today after which he said he would not answer any questions on the Middle East since any further public comment would “serve no purpose.”

When the first question to him was whether he had expected Begin to accept his invitation of last Saturday to meet with him and Khalil at Camp David this week, he repeated that he had no comment.

Carter, who three hours before the press conference received a letter from Begin which explained why he had not accepted Carter’s original invitation to the meeting with the U.S. President and Khalil, said he had spoken to both Begin and Sadat by telephone before the news conference. He said an announcement that Begin would be coming to Washington was being mode simultaneously in Jerusalem. Carter’s announcement came only hours after the Israeli Cabinet rejected an invitation from Carter for Begin to attend a meeting at Camp David.

The letter from Begin to Carter was delivered by Israeli Ambassador Ephraim Evron to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance in normal diplomatic procedure at the State Department. This allowed ample time for Carter to consider Begin’s reasoning and the Israeli Cabinet’s decision. While the White House and State Department earlier today professed “surprise” of Israel’s rejection of Carter’s invitation, they would not say they had “expected” Begin to come here. They insisted that they had “hoped” he would come. This was seen as providing a path of retreat for Carter from his announced formula.

The President opened his statement by reiterating his often expressed declaration that “I have spent more time and invested more of my personal effort” on trying to reach a Mideast peace than on any other problem. He said this was because of the importance of a Mideast peace to the world as well as the countries involved.

Carter said he did not “share the opinion” that the propositions put forward by Vance during his meetings with Khalil and Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan at Camp David were “contrary to the Camp David agreements” or would make on Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty “meaningless.” He did not say who had voiced those opinions.

While not referring directly to Begin’s rejection of a meeting with Khalil, Carter said “I regret that such direct negotiations were not possible at this time. I am concerned” with the possible “impact” of this on a Mideast peace.

“If we allow prospects for peace in the Middle East to continue to dim and, perhaps even die, the future at best is unpredictable, ” he warned. “If we allow this hope to vanish; the judgement of history, of out children, will condemn us.”

In response to a question, Carter said the United States would honor its commitment to supply Israel with oil should that country need it. But the President said Israel did not request on American supply of oil after Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khoumeini announced that his country would no longer sell oil to Israel. Carter noted that Israel’s oil consumption is only one percent of America’s entire consumption and, therefore, supplying oil to Israel would not disrupt American oil consumption.