Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan said here today that he will make no new proposal when he meets in Brussels Saturday evening with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and Egyptian Premier Mustapha Khalil. Dayan, addressing a press conference, said: “I don’t have the necessary authority to go into the issues and I don’t have any proposals to make either.”
The Minister, who arrived here late last night, said that the forthcoming talks will deal only with “talks about the talks–with the way in which the current deadlock can be overcome and the negotiations continued.” He refused to say whether Israel prefers a new summit meeting or whether it favors an American shuttle between Cairo and Jerusalem as one of the means to overcome the current breakdown. “This,” said Dayan, “will be one of the questions we shall have to solve when we meet.”
He made it clear, however, that Premier Menachem Begin is prepared to attend any meetings with President Anwar Sadat or President Carter or with both of them. The Israeli Foreign Minister stressed on several occasions that Israel’s position has not changed since Begin’s declaration during the recent Knesset debate: “Israel has reached the limit of the concessions it can make. There can be no more new concessions. We are prepared for a full withdrawal from the Sinai, both military and civilian personnel, in exchange for full diplomatic relations. What more does Egypt want? Tel Aviv?”
Dayan said that five basic issues still must be solved for the peace treaty to be signed. He stressed that among the two major difficulties to be overcome are Egypt’s refusal now to implement the normalization of relations with Israel as prescribed by the Camp David agreement and the linkage issue.
The Foreign Minister sounded firm throughout his one-hour press conference during which he repeatedly stressed that the only subject Israel is prepared to talk about when the three men meet Saturday is on how to resume the talks. The meetings are expected to last for two days — Saturday and Sunday. Vance, who suggested the Dayan-Khalil meeting, is expected to meet with Dayan and Khalil separately before entering into trilateral meetings.
Dayan, who is in Brussels to review Israel’s relations with the nine-member European Economic Community (EEC), conferred today with several members of the EEC Commission. Tomorrow, he is due to meet with West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who is the current president of the EEC institutions. He will also attend a meeting of a joint EEC-Israel Commission which will study the effects that Spain’s, Portugal’s, and Greece’s entry into the Common Market will have on Israel’s exports to Western Europe, mainly citrus and agricultural products.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
