Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said Wednesday that the chances are nil for an international conference on Middle East peace because such a forum would entail Soviet participation.
Rabin spoke to reporters on his return from the U.S. where he met with top Administration figures and Jewish leaders. (See separate story.) He said he strongly opposed Soviet involvement in Middle East peacemaking “and I don’t see the U.S. excited by the idea.”
The idea for an international conference gained momentum last week when Premier Shimon Peres agreed with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at their summit meeting in Alexandria to establish a joint committee to prepare for such a conference. Peres stressed it could only be a preliminary to direct negotiations between Israel and the Arabs.
Asked to comment, Rabin said “I don’t think Israel has any special interest in bringing back the Soviet Union to fill any significant role in the political set-up in the Middle East.”
He said there was no chance of an international conference in any event because the Soviets would not agree to the conditions set by Israel — restoration of diplomatic relations and free emigration for Soviet Jews.
PRIOR HISTORY AS PRECEDENT
Rabin maintained that the Soviets would have sabotaged the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty had they been involved in the process that led up to it.
“It is worth recalling that if it had not been for the strategy worked out by (Secretary of State Henry) Kissinger in 1974, with the cooperation of Israel and Egypt, and if (President Jimmy) Carter, against his own will, had not continued that policy, we would not have achieved peace between Israel and Egypt,” Rabin said. The Kissinger strategy was to exclude Moscow from negotiations after the Yom Kippur War.
Rabin conceded that Peres’ agreement with Mubarak in principle on an international conference achieved one purpose: “It’s now impossible to complain that because of (Israel’s) behavior, there is no peace process.”
Rabin said he discussed continued U.S. aid to Israel in his talks with Administration officials in Washington. But by mutual agreement they did not take up the controversial Lavi project, the U.S. financed second generation Israeli fighter plane.
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