A six-man ministerial team, headed by Interior Minister Yosef Burg of the National Religious Party, has been named to conduct the negotiations with Egypt over autonomy for the Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They were selected at a meeting last Friday of the II-man ministerial committee that will draft Israel’s autonomy proposals under the chairmanship of Premier Menachem Begin.
The negotiations are to begin in one month, alternating between EI Arish in Sinai and Beer-sheba. The Israeli delegation will report back periodically to the larger body which will decide issues of policy. The II-man group is expected to meet several times before the negotiations start in order to map out Israel’s opening positions.
In addition to Burg, the negotiating team will consist of Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon, Deputy Premier Yigael Yadin and Minister-Without-Portfolio Moshe Nissim. The appointment of Burg to head the group is seen as a shrewd political move by Begin to mollify the fears of the NRP and other circles uneasy about the affect of autonomy an Israel’s hold over the West Bank and Gaza and especially the fate of the Jewish settlements in those territories
Burg was selected after Dayan made it clear that he did not want to head the team whose ambit of authority he felt would be too limited. Dayan denied in a published interview today recent reports of tension between himself and Begin. “I know of none and feel none,” he told a Yediot Achronot reporter.
The foreign Minister will leaver next Monday on a tour of the Far East, including Thailand and Singapore, but is expected back in time to participate in the autonomy committee’s deliberations before the negotiations begin.
It was learned, meanwhile, that Israel and Egypt will exchanger the instruments of ratification putting their treaty into effect next Sunday or Monday, at Umm Hashiba, an American-manned listening post in Sinal. Officials here said Eliahu Ben-Elissar, Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office, would represent Israel at the ceremony. The U.S. Ambassador to Israel Samuel Lewis, and the U. S. Ambassador to Cairo, Hermann Eilts, will also attend.
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