Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir said today that he flatly rejected a freeze on Israeli settlements on the West Bank and Gaza Strip when Secretary of State George Shultz suggested it during their talks in Washington last month. Shamir told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee that he turned down the idea “on the spot” and that Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S., Moshe Arens, was equally opposed to any halt in settlement activity.
Arens has come under fire from Knesset hardliner and some Cabinet ministers for reportedly suggesting to Premier Menachem, Begin in September that Israel should agree to a six-month freeze on settlements in order to improve relations with the U.S. and persuade King Hussein of Jordan to come to the negotiating table. President Reagan urged Israel to freeze settlements when he announced his Middle East peace initiative September 1.
Asked today whether Arens had sent a letter to Begin in support of the American position, Shamir said the Ambassador fully backed the government’s policy of continued settlements. Some observers believe Arens may have proposed a temporary halt in settlements to Begin as a public relations gesture toward the U.S.
Opposition members of the Knesset committee accused Shamir of covering up the failure of the government’s foreign policy and the collapse of its ambitions in Lebanon.
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