Yadin Assesses Peace Process

Deputy Premier Yigael Yadin of Israel told a press conference here yesterday. after three days of talks with U.S. officials In Washington, that although Jordan and the Palestinians in the occupied territories have boycotted peace talks, Israel and Egypt were ready “to proceed alone.” He said the West Bank and Gaza Strip Palestinians have not taken part because they were “intimidated and sometimes assassinated by agents of the PLO.”

He expressed faith that the Palestinians would join the peace process after an agreement an autonomy was worked out by Egypt and Israel. However Yadin said, Israel was concerned about a “trend by certain circles in the U.S. Administration to choose another course and try to get the PLO involved in the talks.” This could create grave difficulties in the negotiating process and the U.S. should stick to the spirit and letter of the Camp David accords, he said. Yadin stated that Israel was not “going to have anything to do with the PLO because its raison ### was the destruction of Israel.”

Commenting on recent Israeli raids into Lebanon, Yadin said his country would continue to “defend itself” against attacks from Palestinians in Lebanon. He said it was “purely a defensive war. We have no interest in Lebanon. Any country would have done the some For us it is a matter of life and death.”

He said the Canadian government’s delay in carrying out a pledge to move Canada’s Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv had not affected relations between the two countries. “We would have liked very much to see Canada move its Embassy, but the decision is up to Canada,” he said (See related story P. 4.)