Mansfield Calls for Senate Probe into Sadat’s Claim of Secret Accords Between Egypt and the U.S.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D.Mont.) today called for a Senate investigation into claims by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat that he has “secret agreements” with the United States that Israel would not attack Syria and that the Palestinians would participate in a Middle East settlement.

Sadat made his claims in a news conference last Sunday in Kuwait but it was not known here until his remarks were published in Egyptian newspapers yesterday. The “secret agreements” Sadat said, were in connection with the Sinai accord signed last September between Egypt and Israel initiated by the United States.

Mansfield said when asked about the Sadat statement. “I am assuming that the (Senate Foreign Relations) committee staff has already been instructed to make appropriate inquiries at the State Department and that some information will be forthcoming shortly. We were told there were no secret agreements.”

The committee of which Mansfield is a member had hesitated to approve the Sinai agreement that involved the stationing of American civilians in the Sinai between Egyptian and Israeli lines until Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger on Oct. 2 presented assurances to the Senators from President Ford that the committee had been told all secret understandings. These assurances were given the committee behind closed doors.

Afterwards, Kissinger and Sen. Frank Church (D.Idaho) told reporters that Kissinger had informed the committee of all the commitments made by the U.S. that are regarded as binding in character by the Administration. Four written agreements were subsequently published by the committee.

NO SECRET ACCORDS WITHHELD

At the State Department today, following the disclosure of Sadat’s news conference, spokesman Robert Funseth said that he was reaffirming that “all relevant agreements reached in conjunction with that agreement (on the Sinai) have been transmitted to the Congress.” He reiterated that “everything was presented to the Congress.” He said he was “not prepared or able to go beyond my response” when he was pressed for details.

When Funseth was asked, if all the relevant agreements were given to Congress, why Sadat made such a public declaration at this time, he said the question should go to an Egyptian spokesman and added, “We’ve not withheld any secret agreements from the Congress.” However, when he was asked whether Sadat had received any assurances from President Ford at their meeting in Austria last June prior to the Sinai agreement on the two claims by Sadat in Kuwait, and whether this would cause a change in U.S. policy, Funseth said he would look into this.

Asked about Sadat’s statement that the U.S. said it will do all it can to have the Palestinians involved in any settlement, Funseth said: “We have taken into account the question of the Palestinian people and the role that problem faces in the whole resolution of the Middle East. But I am not going to use other people’s words to characterize a problem that has been articulated by our President, by the Secretary of State and articulated at the United Nations and remains as has been stated as the record shows.”

Funseth also said with regard to the Palestine Liberation Organization that the U.S. does not have a problem with the PLO “because until the PLO recognizes the State of Israel and accepts the relevant UN resolutions we are not prepared to consider that” participation in a Geneva type conference.

Some reporters questioned whether Sadat said anything new in Kuwait since he had made these claims publicly in the last six months and had discussed them in a speech in Cairo last Sept. 28. In the light of this, Funseth was asked whether the State Department was surprised by Sadat’s remarks. He said he was not prepared to comment.