The United States is seeking “language” to incorporate United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 into a declaration of principles between Egypt and Israel that can lead to an Arab-Israeli settlement, the State Department indicated today.
Department spokesmen Hodding Carter implied this in the course of a discussion with reporters as to why Assistant Secretary of State Alfred L. Atherton is not pressing Israel to withdraw totally from the Arab territories it occupied in 1967. Egypt is reported here to be insisting that total withdrawal by Israel must be part of a “declaration of principles.” Carter said that the basis for a settlement is Resolution 242.
He declined to discuss the present positions of Egypt and Israel toward a declaration of principles. He noted that Atherton has implied that he would not give “temperature readings” at “every stop” in his current shuttle diplomacy in the Mideast.
Atherton, who met with Premier Menachem Begin and Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan upon his return to Jerusalem earlier this week as part of his resumed Mideast shuttle diplomacy effort, left for Cairo Tuesday and is expected back in Israel over the weekend with a clearer indication of the Egyptian position. He will visit Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria next week.
REASON FOR SUSPENSION OF TALKS
The State Department spokesman also told reporters that President Anwar Sadat of Egypt did not break off the political committee talks in Jerusalem Jan. 18 because they were “nearing success,” as has been reported here, but because Sadat was “reacting to the atmosphere that existed” at that time between Israel and Egypt. He said, “We accept what the parties tell us.”
In that connection, the spokesman said the Egyptians gave the U.S. “their reasons” for ending the talks. “From all that we heard from Egypt, no one would go to that end–that Sadat terminated the talks because they approached success.” But Carter agreed that the representatives of the U.S., Israel and Egypt all had said in Jerusalem at the time that the talks were progressing toward an agreement on a declaration of principles when Sadat suddenly broke them off.
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