— With the U.S. and Israel holding high level talks here later this week, the Reagan Administration continues to maintain discreet silence on Egyptian-Israeli autonomy negotiations and on Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s proposal to the Palestinians that they organize a government-in-exile including the Palestine Liberation Organization.
State Department spokesman William Dyess evaded discussion yesterday of Sadat’s suggestion that the Camp David agreements need broadening to include a European initiative to solve the West Bank-Gaza District autonomy issue nor did he discuss U.S. views on the resumption of the stalemated autonomy talks between Israel and Egypt. Israel has been pressing for their early resumption but Sadat, so far, has shown no inclination to reopen them.
Dyess said Israel-American relations and Arab-Israeli negotiations will be taken up when Israel’s Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir meets with Secretary of State Alexander Haig at the State Department Friday.
Immediately after those talks, Shamir will go to the Pentagon for discussions with Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger. Shortly after his arrival in Washington Thursday, the Israeli Foreign Minister will meet with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee in separate sessions at the Capital. These meetings will be the first major contact of the Israeli government with the Reagan Administration and the new Congress.
SADAT’S PRESS CONFERENCE
Meanwhile, the English transcript of a live Cairo radio broadcast yesterday of the press conference held there by Sadat and visiting Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, was made available to the news media here. Sadat recalled that in 1973 he had proposed to the Palestinian Council, when it was attending the Arab League meeting in Cairo with “all the PLO members” present, that the Palestinians set up a government in exile on order to “be rid of the pressures of Syria and the Soviet Union.”
He renewed that proposal at his press conference with Kreisky in the course of which he was sharply critical of PLO chief Yasir Arafat for indeciveness but insisted at the some time that he was not suggesting that Arafat be replaced. He noted that Arafat is the leader of El Fatah which “consists of 80 percent of the PLO” and he was not suggesting anyone else as a substitute. But the leader should be one “who will not be hesitant or one who agrees today and disagrees tomorrow,” Sadat said.
When Kreisky observed that “any representation” of the Palestinian people “can be achieved through a compromise solution among the various parties concerned living under different conditions” and that “Arafat can be part of this compromise,” Sadat said he agreed. “The decision on this matter should come from the Palestinians themselves” he said.
DISAGREES WITH ISRAEL’S VIEW
Sadat said “I do not agree at all” with the Israeli view that his proposed Palestinian government-in-exile is out of line with the letter and spirit of Camp David which, he said, “forms the cornerstone of peace in the area.”
Replying to a question, Sadat said he has not basically decided not to continue the autonomy negotiations with the Israeli government until after Israel’s elections on June 30. However, he added, the Israeli government is preparing for the elections and will not be ready for negotiations. He compared this with the “situation we faced before the U.S. elections” last November. “Let us wait until after the Israeli elections and the Israel government will play its role,” he said.
Observers here were divided on the meaning and intent of Sadat’s proposal. Some indicated he was seeking to send a signal to the Reagan Administration to take a milder approach to the PLO and to indicate to the Europeans who are looking for PLO “association” with the peace talks that he agrees with them. Sadat was also seen as trying to improve his position with a strong pro-Palestinian expression since they have ostracized him for making peace with Israel.
Rather than overturning Camp David, which would be an impossibility with Washington, Sadat is seen as breaking it down by weakening major provisions, including the meaning of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242. He is also seen as seeking not to offend the Reagan Administration because he is dependent upon it for military, economic and diplomatic support. But he is also opposed to the Reagan view that Jordan should be brought back into the peace process at this time.
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