Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres today postponed his meeting with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt until after Israel’s Knesset elections June 30 on grounds that he did not want to involve the Egyptian leader in Israeli election campaign politics.
Sadat, who met with Premier Menachem Begin a week ago at Ophira in Sinai, had invited the opposition leader to a meeting this Sunday in Egypt. Peres telephoned Sadat this afternoon to explain the reasons for his decision. He thanked the Egyptian President for the invitation and Sadat reportedly replied that he understood the situation and would be just as happy to see Peres after the elections.
Before calling Sadat, Peres met with the Egyptian Ambassador, Saad Mortado, to whom he gave a message for Sadat. The message reportedly said that after giving the matter much thought, he concluded that his visit to Egypt would have been linked to the election campaign in one way or another, just as the Sadat-Begin summit meeting was last week. Peres added that Egypt and particularly Sadat had no desire to become involved in Israeli election politics which would have compromised the democratic process in Israel and possibly harmed its relations with Egypt.
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