Report U.S. Prepared to Agree to Some Form of Israeli Control of Sharm El-sheikh

Reliable sources said today that the United States is prepared to agree to some form of Israeli control over the Sharm el-Sheikh strong point in southern Sinai, short of permanent sovereignty. The sources said that in essence, the differences between Washington and Israel over the future. Egyptian-Israeli borders have been reduced to the form of control over Sharm el-Sheikh and a land connection between it and Israel proper. The problem was discussed at a meeting last night by Premier Golda Meir and U.S. Ambassador Walworth Barbour. The U.S. reportedly favors a long term leasing of Sharm el-Sheikh to Israel and concedes that an area of undetermined size adjacent to Eilat should be annexed to Israel for security reasons. The U.S. however is not convinced that a land bridge between Israel and Sharm el-Sheikh is vital. Mrs. Meir’s meeting with Barbour followed Foreign Minister Abba Eban’s report on his meeting in Washington last week with Secretary of State William P. Rogers and White House national security affairs advisor Dr. Henry Kissinger. Mrs. Meir agreed to the request by the American officials that Israel supply the U.S. with more concrete details of the principles that would guide Israel’s territorial claims once actual peace negotiations get underway.

Mrs. Meir took pains to scotch rumors that she gave Ambassador Barbour a territorial map. Her political secretary, Simcha Dinitz, phoned newspaper editors last night stressing that no maps of any kind had changed hands. There was no indication whether the U.S. has or will support Israel’s claims to control of Sharm el-Sheikh at the Big Four meetings in New York, although some observers claim that the American stand is responsible for the continuing impasse in the Four Power deliberations. It was not known whether Egypt has been sounded out by the U.S. on the possibility of leasing Harm el-Sheikh to Israel. Nor was it known whether such an arrangement is, indeed, acceptable to Israel; Reliable sources said there were differences in the Cabinet over the extent of the projected land bridge between Israel proper and Harm el-Sheikh, Ministers described as “minimalists” in their demands, were said to be satisfied with a land connection running from Eilat at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba to Harm el-Sheikh, along the eastern shore of the Sinai peninsula. Others, said to include Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, want a much broader connection. They envision a line running from a point near El Arise on the Mediterranean coast to Sharm el-Sheikh. Dayan himself reportedly is undecided on the location or shape of such a line. The difference between a straight line from El Arish to Sharm el-Sheikh and a curved line could involve a difference of some 10,000 square miles.