The State Department confirmed today that Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S. Ashraf Ghorbal, met with president Reagan yesterday at the White House at Ghorbal’s request to deliver a letter from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Spokesman Dean Fischer told reporters, “That letter as noted by Egyptian authorities in Cairo expressed Egypt’s concern over Israel’s action to extend its law and jurisdiction to the Golan Heights. At the same time, the letter reiterated the importance Egypt attaches to the continuation of the Camp David peace process.” Fischer added that Ghorbal “was very pleased with the President’s assurances of our continued commitment to that process.”
It was announced here earlier by White House deputy press secretary Larry Speakes that Mubarak will make an official visit to the U.S. and confer with Reagan Februrary 3. He said the visit will “underscore the continuity of the broad and profound relations between the two peoples and two countries.” Reagan first invited Mubarak in the days following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat.
SEES MEMORANDUM IN ABEYANCE
Fischer was asked how the State Department regards the status of the memorandum of understanding and whether it has had discussions with the Israeli government about recent events. He stated that the U.S. regards the memorandum “in abeyance,” but he also said that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Samuel Lewis is “in very frequent communication with the Israeli Prime Minister and his colleagues.”
Fischer explained “What we are talking about is the spirit of a relationship as it entails the kinds of actions that each partner will take with respect to the other. This is how we are characterizing our current relationship with Israel.”
REMINDER: There will be no Bulletin dated Dec. 25 due to Christmas, a postal holiday
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
