Informed sources here believe there will be no substantive moves at the Geneva disengagement talks until a new coalition government takes shape in Israel and President Anwar Sadat completes his reshuffling of the Egyptian Cabinet. The Israeli and Egyptian military negotiators met for 70 minutes in Geneva today and adjourned until next Tuesday. It was the shortest of the six sessions the negotiators have held to date.
It was reported in Cairo today that President Sadat will form a new government, possibly next week and has asked Deputy Premier Dr. Abdel-Aziz Mohammed Hegazi to plan a social and economic reform program. Some observers saw in the report an indication that the Egyptians may be shifting away from a war policy toward economic rehabilitation including the re-opening of the Suez Canal.
Meanwhile, doubt was expressed in Jerusalem today that U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger would follow up his latest trip to the Middle East with another round of talks in Geneva on the foreign ministerial level. The ministerial level talks opened in Geneva Dec. 21 following a Kissinger visit to Cairo, Jerusalem and Damascus. It adjourned Dec. 22 after setting the disengagement discussions.
According to observers in Israel, the situation at Geneva does not yet seem ripe for another round of top level meetings which would be called to set the seal on a disengagement agreement. Kissinger is going to Cairo, it is believed, to try to persuade President Anwar Sadat that a workable disengagement plan could be extracted from the broad proposals outlined to him by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan in Washington last weekend.
The week-long break in the Geneva meetings will give the Egyptians time to consider the Israeli proposals, Jerusalem observers said. Egypt’s response is considered most likely to come from Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy after his talks with Soviet leaders. But no agreement is expected until Israel forms a new government and Sadat institutes pending changes in his own government.
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