Mccloskey Says Israeli Statement on Canal Reopening Basis for Negotiations

The United States has received a policy statement from Israel listing her proposals for a reopening of the Suez Canal as an interim Middle East solution. State Department spokesman Robert J. McCloskey confirmed today that the Israeli position was presented yesterday in Jerusalem to Ambassador Walworth Barbour by Premier Golda Meir and here to Assistant Secretary of State Joseph J. Sisco by Israeli Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin. McCloskey said the U.S. envoy to the United Nations, George Bush, would not submit the Israeli proposals to his British, French and Soviet colleagues at this afternoon’s Big Four ambassadors’ meeting in New York. McCloskey would not confirm, however, whether the Israeli statement would be presented to UN Secretary General U Thant. Asked if the Israeli statement was satisfactory to the State Department, McCloskey said “We do believe it can provide a basis for negotiations” toward a canal reopening; but he declined to disclose the contents of the statement.

(According to reports in Jerusalem, Israel has agreed to implement an interim agreement by withdrawing its forces to an unspecified distance from the east bank of the Suez Canal. It insists however that withdrawal must be contingent on three conditions; that Egypt declare a priori that its state of belligerence with Israel which has existed since 1948 is at an end; that Israel be given concrete guarantees and sanctions defined in advance should Egyptian forces attempt to cross the canal and re-occupy the area evacuated by Israeli forces or should Egypt use the interim arrangement to obtain strategic advantage; that all parties understand clearly that the Israeli interim withdrawal in no way comprises or implies a commitment to any further withdrawals from the Sinai Peninsula before a final, comprehensive peace agreement is signed.) The U.S. and Israel, McCloskey added, are continuing contact on “the broadest possible range of issues, and specifically on the reopening of the Suez.” He called such contact “constructive diplomacy” that was “consistent” with U.S. policy, but reiterated that it was not designed “to supplant Jarring,” referring to UN intermediary Dr. Gunnar V. Jarring. McCloskey added that Egypt was still interested in an interim solution providing for a reopening of the canal. It was learned later that the U.S. will also discuss the new Israeli statement in Cairo.