Third Round of Talks Begin Between Israelis. Kissinger

Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger began his third round of talks with Israeli leaders here this evening, presumably on the latest Egyptian position conveyed to him during his two days of discussions with President Anwar Sadat at Aswan last week, Kissinger arrived at Ben Gurion Airport late this afternoon from brief visits to Damascus and Amman for meetings with Syrian President Hafez Assad and King Hussein of Jordan. He was met at the airport by Foreign Minister Yigal Allon and they left immediately by car for Jerusalem without speaking to reporters.

Kissinger’s latest meeting with the Israeli negotiating team, headed by Premier Yitzhak Rabin began at 6 p.m. local time. Six hours earlier, the Cabinet, meeting in secret as a ministerial security committee, heard reports from the Israeli negotiators on the present state of negotiations for a second-stage Israeli-Egyptian agreement in Sinai.

A government communique issued after the meeting stated: “The Cabinet, sitting as the Ministerial Defense Committee, was briefed by the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and the Defense Minister regarding the Egyptian responses transmitted by Dr. Kissinger and empowers the team to continue with the negotiations on the basis of the resolutions adopted by the Cabinet in the past as guidelines for the ministerial team.”

That communique was a clear indication that the Cabinet has adopted no new positions since Kissinger’s return from Egypt and that no new proposals will be offered to the Egyptians, at least for the time being.

SOME MOVEMENT, PROGRESS REPORTED

Well placed sources indicated tonight that there has been some movement on the military aspects of the accord and some ” progress” on “general” elements of the political aspects. The sources had said earlier in the day that agreement on military provisions could probably be attained without insuperable difficulties but the political aspects remained crucial, This evening the sources said that Egypt appeared to be prepared for a second-stage accord that would be public, direct, bilateral and mutual, as Israel has demanded.

But Cairo is still not prepared to consider either a formal declaration of non-belligerency or the major “component parts” of a non-belligerency accord on which Israel insists, The formulae which Egypt has proposed as a formal undertaking are not much more far-reaching than those applied to the January, 1974 disengagement agreement, one source said. The Egyptians, in other words, are willing to incorporate the language of the earlier agreement into a new one but are not willing to go beyond that at this point.

Israel, on its part, is seeking concrete signs of a radical and meaningful change in Egypt’s attitude, the source explained, Egypt must demonstrate that it is ready to resolve its conflict with Israel by peaceful means and to accept Israel as a permanent fixture in the Middle East, Such signs are not yet evident. “Egypt is apparently seeking concessions from Israel while continuing to align itself with the Arab hard-liners who aim at the elimination of the Zionist State,” the source said. He added that if indications of a real change are not forthcoming, “there will not be a settlement.”

ACCORD ON JOINT MILITARY PATROLS POSSIBLE

It was learned, meanwhile, that Kissinger protested strongly to Rabin last Friday after a high level Israeli official was quoted as saying that the Egyptian ideas and proposals conveyed by Kissinger were unsatisfactory in many important areas. The official said later that his remarks must have reached the Secretary “out of context.” He insisted that he did not say that Israel rejected all Egyptian ideas nor that there were any differences between Israeli leaders and Kissinger. But the official stood by his statement that Egypt’s response in many areas was unsatisfactory.

The feeling here, nevertheless, is that Egypt would agree in principle to a phased Israeli military pull-back over several months, to a more permanent United Nations presence, to demilitarization and to other Israeli demands related to a withdrawal. Although Egyptian Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy has denied reports that Egypt was amenable to an Israeli proposal for joint military patrols to supervise a second-stage agreement, the feeling here is that, all other things being equal, an agreement could be obtained on that point.

It was announced in Amman today that King Hussein has accepted Kissinger’s invitation to visit Washington at the end of next month. That announcement was the only statement to emerge after two hours of talks between Kissinger and the Jordanian ruler this afternoon.