Israeli, Egyptian and U.S. delegates wound up three days of autonomy talks here Friday with little progress made other than a decision to meet again in Egypt, at a date still to be fixed.
The talks were held on the technical level and the delegations, headed by Wat Cluverius for the U.S., Chaim Kubersky for Israel and Ezzat Abdul-Latif for Egypt, sought to draw up a list of points of agreement reached during the past 18 months and those points on which no common ground could be found.
The results will be presented to President Reagan as soon as he takes office to enable him to formulate his policy. Conference sources said future meetings of the autonomy committee would depend on Reagan’s decision on how to proceed.
Although the talks were supposed to have been technical, a political note was introduced by the Egyptians and promptly protested by the Israelis. Latif told reporters after the meeting, “We have not been negotiating matters of substance. We have been consulting on ways and means of removing the obstacles which are facing these negotiations.”
CITES MAIN OBSTACLES
Asked what these were, he said “The main obstacles come actually from the political atmosphere that has been created either by taking decisions like the Knesset decision on Jerusalem or the measures taken by the military government in the occupied territories and by the attitude taken towards the Palestinians.”
Latif said the Egyptians had asked the Israelis to take the necessary measures to regain mutual trust and hoped Israel would help reduce tensions on the West Bank, free political prisoners and allow expelled Arab leaders to return home.
Responding, an Israeli delegation source said it was strange that the Egyptians had protested the law declaring Jerusalem Israel’s capital and other actions, calling them obstacles to negotiations without consideration of the fact that Egypt itself had previously suspended the talks to put pressure on Israel, and the attitude shown at times by Egypt in international gatherings.
Kubersky observed that “Israel is, of course, handling the negotiations in the correct manner, with full regard to Israel’s conception of the Camp David agreements, with the aim of reaching full agreement.” Israel will reject any “attempt to go beyond the Camp David agreement or give it incorrect interpretations,” he said.
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