Senior Israeli sources were unable to predict today how the Security Council’s Middle East debate will end. They believe that the Council, adjourned over a month ago for the Nixon-Brezhnev summit talks, will recess shortly after it resumes tomorrow for “consultations.” They said that Egypt, which initiated the debate, had two options–to settle for a mild, meaningless resolution which all member states would support or to hold out for an extreme anti-Israel resolution.
The latter probably would not get the required nine votes and if it did it was sure to be vetoed by the United States, the Israeli sources said. If Cairo settles for a consensus resolution the Egyptians would gain-some crumbs of comfort and a sense of achievement since it would certainly mention Secretary General Kurt Waldheim’s planned trip to the Middle East and wish him well, they said.
The invitation for the Waldheim trip originated in Cairo, according to the sources, and the Egyptians had hoped it would take place before the Security Council’s debate resumed so that Waldheim. could return to New York with a report of continued deadlock However it now appears that Waldheim will not visit the region until late Aug., the sources said, noting that Israel’s Foreign Minister, Abba Eban, will be in Brazil in mid-Aug.
DETECT LOSS OF PATIENCE WITH ARAB PRESSURES
Top Israeli observers are satisfied with the series of rebuffs Egypt has had recently sustained beginning with the Washington summit and extending through the Brezhnev-Pompidou meeting in Paris. The International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva and UNESCO and the World Health Organization failed in efforts to set up investigative committees on the Israel-occupied areas. In Brussels, meanwhile, the nine Common Market countries are negotiating with Israel for a new treaty despite Arab oil pressure.
Observers here detect the world-over a feeling of boredom and loss of patience with Arab pressures to raise the Mideast issue everywhere. Both the Soviets and the Europeans have more pressing concerns, and with the war threat in this region unreal they can well let the Mideast Issue lie dormant for the moment.
The sum total of all this is frustration in Cairo and the major question, observers here say, is where will this lead? To war out of frustration, or to a new peace effort out of frustration? They point out that the Rhodes peace talks in 1949 were made possible because Egypt was frustrated militarily and politically.
Israel and the European Economic Community opened tariff negotiations in Brussels today with the EEC proposing the reduction of customs tariffs for all Israeli industrial exports to the Common Market beginning Jan. 1, 1974. The EEC proposed that these reductions continue on a progressive basis so that by July I, 1977, Israel will pay no more tariffs and by Jan. 1,1980. will have no more quotas fixed on the amount of industrial goods she can export.
An agreement among Israel, France and Italy for a $100 million underseas telecommunications cable between those countries was announced in Jerusalem. The operation is expected to begin in mid-1975.
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