Robert Stanfield, the special emissary of Canada’s Prime Minister Joe Clark, met with Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan for one hour here today and met yesterday with Interior Minister Yosef Burg in the first stage of his fact-finding mission to determine whether the Canadian Embassy should be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. No details were given about their talks.
Foreign Ministry sources said Stanfield and Dayan had “a good meeting,” which included a discussion of the Camp David agreements. Burg characterized his meeting with the Canadian envoy as very important. He said he gave the visitor an historical overview of Jerusalem and of the West Bank. He said the Jordanians had conquered Jerusalem and the Israelis were its liberators. He also claimed that the controversial Jewish settlements on the West Bank were proof that Jews can live in Arabs areas just as Arabs live in Jewish neighborhoods.
Stanfield was assigned his mission by Clark after the latter’s election companion promise to move the Canadian Embassy to Jerusalem drew protests from the Arab states and from Canadian business interests active in the Arab countries. He will visit a number of Arab capitals before returning to Canada to prepare his recommendations on the Embassy shift. He was given one year for the task.
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