The White House said yesterday that the meetings in Jerusalem between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Premier Menachem Begin have “clearly” set up a new approach towards peace in the Middle East. “We feel their actions broke down the psychological barriers to peace in the Middle East,” Deputy Presidential News Secretary Rex Granum said.
“Clearly their actions change the approach to seeking a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Granum observed. “It was a very tangible demonstration that both sides genuinely want peace. We knew from our private discussions with them that they genuinely wanted peace, but for the first time Israel and a major Arab leader have publicly called for peace and pledged themselves to no more war.”
Granum mode his remarks when asked for Presidential reaction to the Sadat visit to Israel. He started his response by saying, “We were encouraged by the visit” and “we feel everything was conductive to a broad-based Middle East peace solution.” Granum made it clear that the actions lead toward Geneva. He added, however, that it was “premature” to discuss the summit in more detail and the White House is waiting further reports from the American Ambassadors in the Middle East.
The White House announced that Begin had telephoned Carter yesterday to brief him on his talks with Sadat. According to the White House, Begin “again expressed his appreciation for the President’s efforts in the Middle East, which the Prime Minister said made the historic meeting possible. The President expressed his appreciation for the call and characterized the conversation as warm and encouraging.” Begin had earlier expressed Israel’s gratitude to Carter last Thursday.
A NEED FOR PATIENCE
In a related development yesterday, the State Department’s top Mideast expert rejected views that the United States was cool to the Sadat-Begin summit meeting and declared that “nothing could be more welcome” than the face-to-face meetings that took place.
Alfred L. Atherton, the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, yesterday told the 400 delegates attending the 64th annual policymaking meeting of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith at the Hyatt Regency Hotel here that there is a need for patience in the Arab-Israeli negotiations. He noted that the problems of more than 30 years cannot be resolved quickly.
Atherton, who addressed the closing session of the four-day ADL meeting, welcomed the statements issued by Sadat and Begin in their televised press conference earlier in the day that they want President Carter’s assistance towards establishing a Geneva conference as the framework and forum for discussions leading to a settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The U.S., Atherton said, will play an active role towards this end as the parties want.
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