Navon Discloses Elements of New Proposed Interim Agreement

Yitzhak Navon, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, disclosed last night that in the new interim agreement Israel and Egypt will give an undertaking to the United States that both sides will be “committed to refrain from the use or threat of force and resolve their differences through negotiations and other peaceful means.” This, he told television viewers, will be included in a statement in the Israel-Egypt pact. (Neither this nor any other of his disclosures were officially confirmed today in Washington.)

In addition, Navon said the statement would affirm: “It is agreed that the conflict between Israel and Egypt will not be solved through military force, but by peaceful means.” The clause referring to the UNEF mandate in Sinai would state: “Both sides agree to request that the mandate will be renewed, through whatever means, for at least three years. Within the framework of the agreement negotiated through the U.S. we know that the United Nations force will not be removed without the consent of both sides.”

MOST SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION YET

Navon, whose disclosures were the most specific description yet by an Israeli official of the proposed agreement, said that the U.S. would provide Israel with sophisticated arms and alternative oil supplies to compensate for the return of the Abu Rodeis oilfields to Egypt and would include guarantees of U.S. economic aid to Israel of more than $2 billion.

Another clause, he disclosed, would specify that the pact was valid until replaced by a new one. This clause, Navon said, was inserted at Israel’s request. In addition, the agreement would contain an undertaking by Israel and Egypt that both sides would continue diplomatic efforts toward a final peace agreement under the auspices of the Geneva peace conference.

Asked about secret Egyptian pledges to Israel through the U.S., Navon, who was taking part in a television program on Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s visit here this week, said he believed these would include promises to limit the economic boycott and propaganda warfare against Israel. Navon told the television audience that there were some 40 clauses in the proposed interim pact but that he could not reveal all of them at this time. (Additional elements in the accord were reported in Wednesday’s Bulletin P.3.)

There was some indication that Navon, a leading Labor Party official, disclosed the elements of the pact to offset opposition to the Cabinet’s decision last Sunday to approve Israel’s position in the negotiating process and to provide support for Premier Yitzhak Rabin’s stand on this issue.