Shimon Peres, leader of the Labor Alignment, predicted here yesterday that Israel and Egypt will eventually reach an accord despite the wide differences between them, but it will be an interim agreement rather than an overall settlement. Peres mode his remarks to the international convention of the Labor Zionist movement attended by 199 delegates representing Israel and 18 other countries. He did not refer to his two-hour meeting with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt in Salzburg, Austria over the weekend.
However, Peres warned that there was no chance to achieve peace without interim agreements. He said the policy adopted by the former Labor-led government which resulted in the two interim agreements with Egypt in Sinai was still valid today. This is so, according to Peres, because the problems between Israel and Egypt are not bilateral but of a general Arab nature.
He said Egypt was under an especially heavy burden because it must negotiate with Israel and at the same time face the Arab rejectionist front which refuses to negotiate with Israel.
Peres said the Labor Alignment would continue to function as an altemative to the present government but not in opposition to peace. President Ephraim Katzir tried to cheer up the Laborites who were ousted from office in the Israeli elections last May. “The present crisis is sure to pass and the Labor movement will see better days, “he told the delegates.
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