Vance Denies U.S. Tilting Toward Egypt; Claims Plane Sale to Egypt Would Help Its Talks with Israel

Secretary of State Cyrus Vance strongly denied last night that the United States was siding with Egypt in Middle East negotiations. “We are not tilting in favor of anybody,” he said in an interview on the Public Broadcasting Service’s “MacNeil/Lehrer Report.”

Vance said the U.S. was trying to maintain an “objective” position in order to help the Egyptians and Israelis negotiate a settlement although “we expressed our views” when Washington felt this would be helpful in advancing talks.

The Secretary, who earlier in the day announced that the U.S. will sell Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia fighter aircraft, rejected the Israeli view that the sale of the 50 F-5 fighters to Egypt will harm the Mideast peace negotiations. He said that it would enhance the negotiations. He noted that Egypt had come to the U.S. for arms after it had lost its principal supplier, the Soviet Union.

At the same time, Vance also rejected Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s charge that the supply of U.S. arms to Israel makes Jerusalem intransigent in negotiations. Vance said that providing Israel with the weapons it needs gives Jerusalem “self-confidence,” enabling it to negotiate a settlement. Israel is to get 15 F-15s and 75 F-16s, according to Vance’s announcement, about half what it asked.

Vance refused to agree with the questioner that the proposal to sell the F-5s to Egypt and 60 F-16s to Saudi Arabia has been made easier by an American public opinion that is shifting from all-out support from Israel to one that looks with more favor on the Arabs, especially Egypt. But he conceded that it would have been more difficult to make the same proposal last year. However, he noted that a year ago there were no negotiations between Israel and Egypt.

SEES GOOD PROGRESS IN NEGOTIATIONS

On the negotiation itself, Vance said “considerable progress” had been made on the military talks between Egypt and Israel and “good progress” on the political talks. He said the only one of the list of principles that had not been agreed upon by the two sides concerned the West Bank Gaza and the “intertwining Palestinian question.”

Vance said he still stood by his statement last Friday that Israeli settlements in the Sinai were illegal and should not exist. But he stressed that he also noted that the future of these settlements had to be worked out by Egypt and Israel through negotiations. He said he had often stated this publicly as well as privately to the Israelis.

However, the Secretary refused to comment on whether he agreed with the Israeli position that the settlements were necessary for Israeli security. He said it would be “inappropriate for me to comment.”

Vance noted that he will be discussing the Mideast situation with Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan tomorrow and that Assistant Secretary of State Alfred Atherton will be returning to the Mideast next week to try to help negotiations resume. He said that he is considering naming Atherton as an “Ambassador-at-Large” so that he can concentrate on the Mideast negotiations while someone else would be appointed to handle his important duties as Assistant Secretary for Near East and South Asian Affairs.