Rabin Denies There is U.S. Pressure on Israel to Open Talks with Syria

Premier Yitzhak Rabin told the Cabinet yesterday that there was no American pressure on Israel to open negotiations with Syria and that he knew of no American initiative in that direction. Replying to questions, the Premier said that Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger did not speak, in his recent remarks, of an autonomous Palestinian state but rather of the possibility of granting autonomy to the Palestinians “in the framework of peace.” (See separate story from Washington P. 2.)

Justice Minister Haim Zadok told his colleagues that his legal advisors were studying Kissinger’s statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that American commitments to Israel in the framework of the recent Sinai accord did not have legally binding significance.