A Reagan Administration official expressed confidence here yesterday that a multi-national force to patrol Sinai could be established by the time Israel completes its withdrawal from the peninsula in April, 1982. Michael Sterner, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs, said the U.S. has given the multi-national force a high priority despite possible difficulties.
Sterner arrived here yesterday for two days of meetings on the subject of the multi-national force with David Kimche, Director General of the Foreign Ministry. He conceded that negotiations on that matter “will be complicated in some ways.” He declined to say if the U.S. would be willing to constitute the force unilaterally and stressed that its composition depended on agreement by both Israel and Egypt. He will go to Cairo over the weekend.
Sterner made his comments a day after Premier Menachem Begin warned that Israel would delay its with drawl from Sinai if the U.S. failed to organize the peacekeeping force called for in the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. Moshe Arens, chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, went even further, suggesting that Israel should re-examine its withdrawal from Sharm el-Sheikh and the Sinai airfields under any circumstances.
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