The Foreign Ministry released a statement today reiterating West German backing for the right of the Palestinians to self-determination and sharply criticizing Israeli settlement policy in the West Bank. The statement quoted Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher as saying that next month the nine member countries of the European Economic Community (EEC) will lay down their precise attitude toward the solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The move come in the aftermath of the talks between Genscher and the Egyptian Vice President Hosni Mubarak, currently visiting Germany. Sources in Bonn said that Mubarak carried a personal message from President Anwar Sadat of Egypt to Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, but they would not describe its content.
Other elements included in the German statement were the need to find a solution to the problem of Jerusalem, the desire for an urgent solution to the conflict and Israel’s right to exist. Mubarak reportedly briefed Genscher on the deadlocked autonomy talks.
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