Deputy Secretary of State Walter Stoessel Jr. was scheduled to confer in London today with Nicholas Veliotes, Assistant Secretary of State for Near East and South Asian Affairs, on Veliotes’ talks in Egypt and Israel on the final plans for Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai, the State Department said today.
Veliotes, who was scheduled to arrive in London from Israel today and then return to Washington, will brief Stoessel who has been sent from Washington to Israel and Egypt. State Department Deputy Spokesman Alan Romberg said Stoessel would meet with senior officials of both countries, including Israeli Premier Menachem Begin and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. He said the talks in Israel will begin Thursday but the schedule beyond that day was “indefinite.”
VIEW OF STOESSEL’S MISSION
Romberg continued to maintain that Stoessel’s mission was aimed solely at last minute details of Israel’s pull-out from Sinai on April 25. Israel reportedly has complained to the U.S. of alleged Egyptian violations of the peace treaty. There is also an unresolved dispute between Israel and Egypt over some sections of the international boundary between Sinai and Israel.
However, it is also reported that Stoessel, the No. 2 man at the State Department after Secretary of State Alexander Haig, was being sent to the Middle East because of concern in Washington that Israel plans to attack Palestine Liberation Organization bases in Lebanon. Romberg said today that Philip Habib, President Reagan’s special envoy for the Lebanese situation, is not being sent back to the region but is being kept in touch with the situation.
The two State Department officials, one enroute to the Middle East and the other returning, presumably have kept in touch with Haig who has been attempting to mediate the British-Argentine crisis over the Falkland Islands this week. Haig was on his way back to Washington from London today.
CONCERN OVER WEST BANK VIOLENCE
Meanwhile, the State Department voiced concern about the continued violence on the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem which it said was caused by “sporadic demonstrations and commercial strikes” in reaction to the killing of two Arabs and the wounding of 12 others on the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem Sunday by a “deranged gunman.”
Romberg said that “everybody should exercise maximum restraint.” But he refused to condemn Israel for the actions of Israeli troops which resulted in the deaths of two Arab children in the past 24 hours.
“There have been additional casualties among both Israelis and Palestinian Arabs as a result of rock-throwing and the use of lethal force to disperse demonstrators,” Romberg said. He said the State Department had “reports” that a five year-old girl died of gunshot wounds at a refugee camp yesterday and an eight year-old boy was fatally shot in the Gaza Strip today.
“We deplore the action of both these tragic deaths and extend our condolences to the families of the victims,” Romberg said. “We again call on all those in a position to do so to exercise maximum restraint to prevent further such serious deaths.”
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