The State Department confirmed today that there were secret understandings in the January 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Egypt but refused to say whether these included an undertaking by Egypt to permit Israel cargoes transit through the Suez Canal which was officially reopened today.
The matter came up against the background of reports that a Liberian ship carrying 12,000 tons of sugar from South Korea to Israel would attempt to pass through the canal within the next few days. State Department spokesman Robert Funseth said “There has never been any question that certain understandings exist.” But when pressed by reporters to confirm reports that former President Nixon had assured former Israeli Premier Golda Meir in a 1974 letter that he had assurances on Israel-bound cargoes from Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Funseth said he would not discuss “confidential” diplomatic exchanges.
In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday, U.S. Ambassador-designate to Israel Malcolm Toon said that “certain private commitments” were made in the disengagement accords on shipping, but added, “I simply don’t know” whether President Sadat will “permit” Israel-bound cargoes through the canal, Regarding this matter, he said “the safest way” is to point out that UN Security Council Resolution 242 provides for what Toon said is “that possibility in the context of a general peace agreement.”
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