Shamir Stresses Gamp David Accords

Israel’s Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir said here today that Israel continues to rely on the Camp David agreements for a settlement of the Middle East dispute and is prepared “to make further concessions and sacrifices within this framework.” In an interview published in Le Monde, the Israeli diplomat also stressed that his country “does not accept the premises of the Venice declaration” issued last June by the nine member states of the European Economic Community (EEC).

The Venice document calls for Israel to withdraw to pre-1967 borders and stipulates that the Palestine Liberation Organization must be associated with the Middle East peace process.

Shamir arrived here yesterday on a five day private visit at the invitation of the French United Jewish Appeal. It was interrupted today when he flew back to Israel to attend a Knesset session this afternoon where a controversial law severely restricting autopsies will be debated prior to its second and final readings. Premier Menachem Begin’s government which no longer commands a parliamentary majority, summoned all members home to ensure passage of the measure.

Shamir will return to Paris tomorrow morning. He is scheduled to meet with President Valery Giscard d’Estaing on Thursday afternoon and will confer with Alain Poher, President of the French Senate and Jacques Chaban-Delmas, Speaker of the National Assembly.

Last night the Israeli minister was the dinner guest of Foreign Minister Jean Francois-Poncet with whom he reviewed the Middle East situation in light of the Iraqi-Iranian war. Among the subjects raised was French participation in the construction of two nuclear reactors for Iraq on the outskirts of Baghdad Work on the site was halted after two Phantom jets, believed to be of the Iranian air force, bombed the project in October. Shamir reportedly asked the French not to renew work on the reactors once hostilities are ended. But it is believed that Poncet refused to make any commitment on that subject.