President Anwar Sadat of Egypt flung his arms wide in greeting as soon as he saw President Carter from the steps of the helicopter that flew him here this afternoon from Andrews Air Force Base near Washington. The Egyptian leader, whose arrival for the summit conference preceded that of Israeli Premier Menachem Begin by about two hours, descended quickly and threw himself into the President’s hearty hug.
The phalanxes of reporters, forbidden to ask questions of either of the leaders, faithfully measured the length of the Carter-Sadat embrace and the warmth of the kiss Sadat bestowed on the First Lady, Mrs. Rosalynn Carter. The noise of the helicopter drowned out whatever was said by Sadat and his hosts and the reporters were, in any event, kept too far away to hear their conversation.
After the greeting, the Carters slowly escorted Sadat on foot out of the sight of the press corps for at least the next several days. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who escorted Sadat on the 35-minute flight to Camp David, returned with the helicopter to Andrews Air Force Base to greet Begin.
On hand at Camp David as a welcoming committee with the Carters were the President’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Harold Saunders and Carter’s Ambassador-at-Large to the Middle East, Alfred Atherton.
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.
