Kosygin Demands Israel Withdraw from Territories; Stops Short of Demanding Time-table

Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin demanded yesterday that Israel withdraw from the occupied Arab territories as stipulated by the Security Council’s Resolution 242 of Nov. 22, 1967. But Kosygin stopped short of endorsing Egypt’s demand that Israel submit a withdrawal time-table in advance of peace talks as a condition for extending the present cease-fire. Kosygin spoke at a luncheon in Moscow honoring a visiting Egyptian delegation headed by Vice President Aly Sabry and numbering among its members Foreign Minister Mahmoud Raid and Minister of War Mohammed Fawzi. The Soviet leader warned “Israeli extremists” to be “under no illusion” that they will gain concessions from agreeing to a peaceful settlement in the Mideast. He warned that nobody was begging Israel for “peace at any price.” His remarks were less vehement than those of Sabry who seemed to reflect growing Egyptian bitterness over the present Mideast stalemate. (In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert J. McCloskey said yesterday the U.S. “would be satisfied” if Israel returned to the Jarring peace talks by Jan. 5, the date on which United Nations Secretary General U Thant is scheduled to report to the Security Council on the progress of Mideast peace moves. McCloskey indicated that the government is certain that Israel will agree to resume the talks shortly. He declined however to be drawn into a warning that further delay by Israel would jeopardize the current cease-fire.)

(Sen. Henry M. Jackson, Washington Democrat, urged the Nixon administration yesterday to abandon the Mideast peace proposals advanced by Secretary of State William P. Rogers a year ago which would have Israel withdraw to its pre-June, 1967 borders with only minor territorial adjustments. Jackson endorsed Israel’s objections to the Rogers plan on grounds that it “diminishes the Israeli bargaining position and encourages the Arabs to adopt a rigid rather than flexible position.”) Kosygin and Sabry condemned the U.S. for supporting Israel, though Sabry was more vehement than the Soviet leader in his speech yesterday. He declared that Egypt “will not allow the aggressors to freeze the Middle East problem by using cold war methods aimed at making the Israeli occupation of Arab territories an accomplished fact.” He said his country “is prepared to make any sacrifices for the liberation of our lands and the return of our legitimate rights.” Some observers here thought it was significant that Kosygin failed to demand a withdrawal time-table from Israel especially as such a demand was made only two days ago by a Soviet Communist Party delegation visiting Cairo. According to one source, the Soviet government will avoid endorsing any such specific condition by Egypt for extending the cease-fire beyond its Feb. 5 deadline. The source said that Moscow does not want to commit itself in advance to military support of Egypt should warfare be renewed in the Suez Canal zone. But Kosygin nevertheless guaranteed a steady flow of weapons, money and Soviet expertise to help Egypt thwart the “Israeli aggressors.”