Rabin Says U.S. Has Responsibility to Study Israel’s Reports on Stand-still Violation

Israeli Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin told newsmen today at the State Department that “we have given our views and our facts” to the administration on the new Soviet Egyptian missile advances toward the Suez Canal. Ambassador Rabin said the United States had a “responsibility” to “study it and come to some conclusion.” He added: “We have presented what we believe has happened. What we are asking, I won’t say.” Gen. Rabin said that “we have evidence, but I will not detail what kind,” but did add that the missiles were “closer than they used to be, prior to the cease-fire.” The missile movement, he said, “began several hours prior to the cease-fire,” and continued long after,” but he did not elaborate on the time span involved. Asked what he was asking the administration to do about the situation, the ambassador replied: “We’ll leave that to the United States.” He commented that he was in “no position to say” whether the new military development in the Middle East constituted an end to the cease-fire or would delay peace negotiations.

(In Israel, the Jerusalem Post stated that due to the violation of the stand-still agreement, the government was considering postponing appointing its delegate to talk to Ambassador Gunnar V. Jarring, the United Nations special Mideast peace mediator.) State Department spokesman Robert J.McCloskey said Ambassador Rabin had met for 75 minutes today with Joseph J. Sisco, Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. Mr. Sisco then conferred, he said, with Ashraf Abdel Latif Ghorbal, the Egyptian ministerial representative in the U.S., who is just back from Cairo. Mr. McCloskey said the Sisco-Ghorbal talk was “broad,” but that “I wouldn’t rule out the question of these violations.” As to the new missiles, Mr. McCloskey would say only what he said yesterday: “We are looking into the matter.” It was learned from informed diplomatic sources that the U.S. has been conducting aerial surveillance of the cease-fire area. Mr. McCloskey said Israel had informed the U.S. about the SAM deployment on Tuesday. Asked whether the development would affect the timetable for negotiations, he replied “I should not think so.”