Shuttle diplomacy between Cairo and Jerusalem by a U.S. Middle East specialist to keep the Arab-Israel political process going and Egypt’s request for American arms for itself and the African states of Chad and Somalia were the only tangible results on record today as Egyptian-American summit meetings entered their fourth day.
However, President Carter said upon returning yesterday to Washington with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat from Camp David that the U.S. would “redouble its efforts to ensure that progress is made in the weeks ahead” and promised to make “a much more definite” statement on their talks following his final meeting with Sadat at the White House Wednesday.
Sadat, who usually makes a statement to the news media on these occasions, stood silently at Carter’s side upon their return to the White House. But in an interview with NBC’s David Brinkley late last night, the Egyptian leader appeared fixed on his demand that Israel return to the pre-1967 borders with a Palestinian state along side of it.
This position arose when Brinkley told him of Israeli Premier Menachem Begin’s view in a letter yesterday to the Miami Herald which a week ago had published Sadat’s “open letter” to American Jews. Begin, Brinkley pointed out to Sadat, said Egypt wants Israel to give up Sinai, dismantle the settlements, give up the West Bank, create a Palestinian state, climb down from the Golan Heights and divide Jerusalem. “He (Begin) sees this as a recipe for Israeli suicide,” Brinkley told Sadat.
OLD IDEAS OF SECURITY
Refusing to acknowledge Israel’s military vulnerability by its pre-1967 borders that 30 years of Arab hostility has proved, Sadat declared that the Israeli government is insisting on “old ideas of security.” He declared that Sinai is “our land” and the Golan Heights is “Syria’s land.” He was not as categorical, however, about the West Bank, saying that “without solving the Palestine problem we will never settle the (Mideast) problem.”
Sadat appeared to separate the people of Israel and the American Jewish community from the Begin government. He said the “old security ideas” were that of the Begin government, not the people of Israel. He told Brinkley he was very “touched” by the American Jewish community. “I shall never fool them–all the American people,” Sadat affirmed.
The Egyptian President said that he had three business sessions at Camp David from the time of his arrival Friday from Cairo via Morocco–two privately with Carter and one with aides from both sides. In contrast to his usual ebullience, Sadat seemed subdued in the Brinkley interview. By contrast, also, it was Carter who had his arm around Sadat when he was leading him yesterday from the helicopter to the White House. On his arrival Friday, Sadat rushed forward with arms outstretched to Carter.
Sadat indicated in the interview that Carter informed him that “he must go through the Congress” on transfers of weapons to Egypt. “I think he understands what is behind my demands,” Sadat said of Carter.
The Egyptian President said he needed arms not only for the defense of Egypt but also to help his fellow African countries. He said that before coming to the U.S. he received requests for such aid from Somalia and Chad. Sadat made a similar statement in an interview published in the current issue of Time magazine. He told Time that he does not oppose the U.S. providing arms for Israel, “but let them use them inside their borders to feel secure, not to claim others’ land.”
A White House statement on the Camp David meeting said that the two Presidents “will further refine their views in the exchanges between their representatives over the next few days” as well as their Wednesday session. It said that Assistant Secretary of State Alfred Atherton will return to the area in the near future to try for completion “of a declaration of principles.” The statement said the Presidents viewed the declaration as “an important step in establishing the framework for comprehensive peace in the area.”
Informed U.S. sources said, meanwhile, that while no final decision on the planes for Egypt has been reached, Carter has decided he will work to provide Sadat with at least part of the Egyptian request for 120 F-5s. Some put the figure at 50.
Sadat’s schedule today includes meetings with the media at the National Press Club, with Defense Secretary Harold Brown to discuss the purchase of American arms, and with prominent American Jews. (See story P.3.)
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