A high State Department official told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that the Department would not comment on an alleged Egyptian violation of the disengagement agreement because “any difficulties that may arise in the Egyptian-Israeli disengagement agreement are best handled through private consultations in whatever channels the parties find useful.”
The JTA elicited that comment after pressing the State Department to explain why it refused to comment today on reports that the Egyptians had placed 100 additional artillery pieces in the limited forces zone east of the Suez Canal–a report it conceded was known to Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger before he went to Moscow last weekend.
State Department spokesman John King repeatedly said “no comment” when asked at today’s press briefing about the alleged Egyptian violation and about a report from Israel that Defense Minister Moshe Dayan may cancel his March 29 visit to Washington because of it. “I won’t go into that,” King said. He also refused to comment on a further report that U.S. intelligence had confirmed the Israeli report of an Egyptian violation. With regard to Dayan who is due here at the end of the week for discussions with Kissinger on an Israeli-Syrian disengagement process, King would say only that he has not been told that Dayan is not coming.
Asked if the State Department was studying the situation on the Egyptian front, King repeated “no comment.” When the JTA pointed out that the Israeli-Egyptian disengagement agreement had been achieved at U.S. initiative and through Secretary Kissinger’s personal diplomacy, King replied, “sometimes we don’t discuss it.”
Another State Department official close to the circumstances acknowledged that Kissinger knew of the situation on the Egyptian front last Thursday while he was preparing to go to Moscow. According to a JTA report from Israel yesterday, Kissinger raised the matter with the Egyptians after it was brought to his attention by the Israeli Ambassador, Simcha Dinitz. (By Joseph Polakoff.)
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