Officials here said today that Israeli-Egyptian peace talks would open in Washington at the ministerial level next week with Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan heading the Israeli delegation at the initial session. No modalities have been worked out yet for subsequent sessions which might be held at some Middle East site and at a lower level, the officials said.
The talks in Washington are scheduled to begin Thursday, Oct. 12, directly after Yom Kippur and are expected to lead to the conclusion of an Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty by the end of the year or sooner. Dayan will leave for New York tomorrow and will confer there with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance on Friday. He is to address the United Nations General Assembly next Monday and will go to Washington Thursday. Dayan will be accompanied by his political aide, Elyakim Rubinstein, and his spokesman, Naftali Lavie.
The Cabinet is expected to name the other members of Israel’s negotiating team at its regular session Sunday. They will fly to Washington to join Dayan. Although Israel made no official announcement accepting President Carter’s invitation to hold the peace talks in Washington, the announcement of Dayan’s mission today signified acceptance.
Officials said Dayan is not scheduled to hold meetings with other foreign ministers at the UN–a common practice at General Assembly sessions–because of the short time he will spend in New York. But they did not rule out on-the-spot meetings.
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