Vice President Walter Mondale and former Under Secretary of State Joseph Sisco have indicated in separate meetings with reporters that President Carter will make specific suggestions at the Camp David summer conference to move towards a Mideast settlement that he considers suitable.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia was reported as assuring the terrorist Palestine Liberation Organization that Egypt will not agree to a separate peace with Israel and also tossed a hint that the hard-pressed Carter Administration need not worry immediately about oil price increases or an abandonment of the dollar.
Mondale said today that Carter will try to “prod and urge” Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Premier Menachem Begin toward a settlement with “suggestions” and “ideas” but, he said, “we don’t have any plans, or a comprehensive plan or a specific detailed plan.”
CONCRETE SUGGESTIONS INDICATED
Sisco, who was a chief architect of the Rogers plan of December, 1969 that Israel rejected, said he has “no doubt whatsoever the President will make specific and concrete suggestions” and that he will be “right in the middle of activity, actually negotiating the understanding he is seeking.”
Sisco, who has maintained close ties with the State Department since leaving two years ago to become president of American University, said President Carter will seek a “substantive” framework for future negotiations that will include the nature of peace, Israel’s withdrawals, security for the Mideast nations and the Palestinian issue. Sisco said the possibility of a framework is a “good gamble” and not “a big gamble.”
Carter, who is vacationing in Idaho, was reported as saying there yesterday that the summit conference “is going to be tough” but that the political climate between Israel and Egypt is now generally good. The President made the comment when he was asked for an assessment on the prospect for success at Camp David.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia entered the political picture directly and indirectly. The Beirut correspondent of the Financial Times of London reported that “King Khalid of Saudi Arabia assured Yasir Arafat that President Sadat will not conclude a separate peace with Israel at Camp David.” The Financial Times said that the assurance was given by Khalid to the head of the PLO yesterday in the Saudi summer resort of Taif. The report, published today, was attributed to “Arab diplomatic sources.” Saudi Arabia contributes heavily to the support of the PLO and Egypt.
There were no official comments, mean-while, following Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s reported rejection of Israeli Premier Menachem Begin’s idea of a “permanent partial peace settlement” in which he would propose peaceful relations with the Arabs until a formal peace agreement can be negotiated.
Addressing a political meeting in his home town of Talaa and broadcast live by Cairo Radio, Sadat said “there is no room whatsoever for partial solutions, unilateral settlements or a third disengagement.” He added that at Camp David he would strive for “permanent peace, based on justice. This peace based on justice will not be achieved unless the Palestinian problem is solved.”
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