U.S. Supports Egypt’s Opposition to West Bank Settlements

Egyptian Vice President Hosni Mubarak received personal assurances from President Carter today that the U.S. will assist Egypt with its “legitimate defense needs.” At the same time, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance supported the Egyptian government’s bitter opposition to Jewish settlements on the West Bank.

Mubarak, in Washington for a four-day visit shortly before President Carter and Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev meet in Vienna where the Middle East will be on their agenda, also met with Ambassador Robert Strauss, Carter’s special envoy to the Israeli-Egyptian negotiations on autonomy, Defense Secretary Harold Brown, Vice President Walter Mondale and other American officials involved in Middle East diplomatic and military discussions. The White House said. Carter and Mubarak reviewed the status of American-Egyptian cooperation “in a number of fields.” The President expressed” great interest in Egypt’s priority efforts to expand its economic and social development,” the White House statement said. Mubarak brought a special message for Carter from President Anwar Sadat but its contents were not disclosed.

After his meeting with Mubarak, Vance told reporters that Israel’s “continuation of the building” of Jewish settlements in occupied territory “is a hindrance to the peace process.” With the Egyptian official at his side, the Secretary of State said the new Israeli settlements are “particularly inappropriate at this time” when Israel and Egypt are engaged in the initial phases of negotiations for autonomy on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Mubarak told the reporters that the Egyptian government feels the statements by Premier Menachem Begin of Israel about the right to establish Jewish settlements are “going to hinder the peace process.” He said that Egypt is “doing” the ” maximum to reach full peace in the area but we are sorry to say that every now and then… we hear statements which are going to put obstacles in the peace process.”

BLUM DEFENDS RIGHT OF JEWS ON WEST BANK

At the State Department today, chief spokesman Hodding Carter said the issue of Saudi Arabia’s pledge to pay for 55 U.S. built warplanes for Egypt is ” not resolved.” The first payment on the $520 million bill is due July I but there is no indication that the Saudis will pay it.

Meanwhile, Yehuda Blum, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, passionately defended Israel’s right to settle the West Bank. Addressing a dinner here last night of the Louis D. Brandeis District of the Zionist Organization of America, Blum declared that the Jewish people have “the inalienable right” to its land and” the right to live in any part of Eretz Israel, including Judaea and Samaria which are an integral part of Eretz Israel.” He said that “Jews are not foreigners anywhere in the land of Israel” and “anyone who asserts it is illegal for a Jew to live in Judaea and Samaria Just because he is a Jew is, in fact, advocating a concept disturbingly reminiscent of the ‘ Judenrein’ policies of Nazi Germany.”