Leaders of the Israeli and Egyptian delegations who met separately with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance at the State Department this morning indicated that a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt is near completion. But the American spokesman for the Blair House conferees refused to project such optimism.
The hesitation on the part of George Sherman to agree with the upbeat statements made by Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and Usama Al-Boz, the Egyptian Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, was believed predicated on issues between Israel and the U.S. that Vance will discuss with Premier Menachem Begin when they meet in New York tomorrow. When Dayan emerged from the hour-long meeting with Vance, also attended by Defense Minister Ezer Weizman and Israeli and U.S. legal advisors, he was asked point blank by a reporter whether an Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty is “all wrapped up.”
“Well, almost,” Dayan replied. Later, after an 85-minute meeting between Vance and the Egyptians, Al-Boz was asked if an agreement was near completion. He replied, “That is a correct answer.” But when Sherman was asked if he agreed with Dayan’s assessment, the American spokesman observed: “Almost can be a very long word on some terms. I can’t go beyond saying that the negotiations continue to go forward.”
He added that “no one can project when a final agreement can be reached.” He acknowledged that “the differences have boiled down to two or three issues” between Israel and Egypt but refused to identify them.
ISSUE OF AMERICAN AID
Sherman indicated that the discussions between Vance and the Egyptians dealt mostly with non-military matters. He refused to reply to questions on the issue of linkage between a peace treaty and the larger Camp David framework dealing with the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
He would not agree that the issue of Jewish settlements on the West Bank or reports of Israel’s insistence on a commitment by the Carter Administration for financial and other material aid for Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai were being discussed at the plenary sessions between the Israeli, Egyptian and American delegations at Blair House.
Sherman was pressed by reporters on Israeli expectations of explicit U.S. commitments for the Sinai withdrawal and the two new air bases to be built in the Negev. “The question of American aid to Israel has not been raised in the context of the trilateral meetings which, after all, is the Blair House conference,” Sherman said.
However, he would not say that the issue was not discussed in the informal bilateral sessions among the three delegations. Asked if it was possible to conclude an Egyptian-Israeli treaty without solving the American-Israeli bilateral issue of financial assistance, Sherman replied, “That goes into the decision-making of the various governments.”
The meetings with Vance this morning followed a two-hour informal session between the Israeli and Egyptian delegations at the Madison Hotel suite of Egyptian Defense Minister Mohammed Hassan Ali, the head of the Egyptian negotiating team. Ali did not attend the meeting with Vance. The Egyptian delegation there was headed by Acting Foreign Minister Boutros Ghali.
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