State Department Says Israel, Egypt Indicate Need for Cooling off Period

The State Department said today that the United States infers that both Egypt and Israel want the rhetoric to be lowered and that the U.S. chief Middle East expert, Assistant Secretary of State Alfred Atherton, will remain indefinitely in the Mideast to help advance the settlement process in the Egyptian-Israeli committee meetings in Cairo and Jerusalem. Department spokesman Hodding Carter said “directly or indirectly” both Egypt and Israel have suggested that “an intermediate cooling off period of an indeterminate amount of time is what the situation requires.”

He said Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who meets with President Carter at the White House tonight regarding the situation, has “hopes” that in “the immediate future discussions in one form or another which is being undertaken by the political committee–specifically item one–the question of overall principles–can be resumed. How the form that resumption would take or how it might go forward frankly is a matter yet to be determined.”

With Egypt having suspended the political talks in Jerusalem and Israel postponing a decision whether to reenter the military talks in Cairo, Carter was asked when the Cairo talks would resume. He noted that Israeli Defense Minister Ezer Weizman will be coming to the U.S. Thursday and that while Weizman could go to Cairo before then he thought that was not likely.

With reference to the presence of Atherton in Jerusalem, Carter said he was “left out there for a reason” so that he would be “useful” to advance both the political and military talks. There is no time limit or travel plans for Atherton and he is available to go to Egypt, the spokesman said. When a reporter asked whether a press report that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat may visit Washington, the spokesman said “there is no plan and no request” for a Sadat visit.