PEACE PLAN Israel Postpones Meeting To Decide Response

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32361, 29 July 1970, Page 17

PEACE PLAN Israel Postpones Meeting To Decide Response

(N.Z.P A. -Reuter —Copyright) JERUSALEM, July 28. The Israeli Cabinet today postponed until tomorrow its extraordinary session to decide on its reply to the plan for peace put forward by the American Secretary of State (Mr William Rogers), officials said.

The officials said that the Cabinet decided to await further clarifications from the United States, especially on the limited cease-fire issue, a key proposal in the plan. The only opponents to acceptance of the plan were believed to be the six right-of-centre Gahal ministers in the coalition, but they were expected to abide by a majority decision in favour of giving the go-ahead for the plan. The plan calls for a minimum cease-fire lasting 90 days during which the United Nations peace envoy, Dr Gunnar Jarring, would resume efforts to bring about an agreement between Israel and the Arab States. It is this truce period proposal that

has been holding up Israeli acceptance. Israel is the only country still to give its answer. The two Arab States approached, Egypt and Jordan, have already signified basic acceptance. United States officials, meanwhile, were confident that the Prime Minister, Mrs Golda Meir, would be able to overcome the Right-wing group in her Government that fears any further erosion of Israel's position. But Lieutenant-General Yitzhac Rabin, the Israeli Ambassador to Washington, hinted after a State Department meeting that a formal Israeli reply might still be several days away. He declined to discuss any details of the diplomatic discussions when questioned by reporters but said “1 believe it will take some days more.” General Rabin was believed to have sought firm assurances that the cease-fire, in fact, would be an effective military freeze—precluding, the Egyptians from moving their sophisticated Russian-made defensive missiles right up to the Suez Canal, and perhaps preparing to cross the waterway at a later stage if necessary Washington officials said that the plan includes these assurances for Israel. They also said. the United States had orally spelled out to the various parties suggestions for supervising the truce along both the Suez Canal and the Israeli-Jordanian border. Some reports have said the plan calls for United Nations observers. But Israel, which has been unhappy with the United Nations since the withdrawal of the peacekeeping force just before the 1967 war with the Arabs, apparently opposes this. General Rabin himself made this clear when in re-

cease-fire and the other would be on physical arrangements for the negotiations between the parties under the auspices of the United Nations mediator, Dr Gunnar Jarring. Israel is believed to have agreed to these negotiations though stressing that these must be without preconditions.

sponse to a reporter’s question, he said “if any ceasefire arrangement is to be effected, the most ineffective body to supervise it is the United Nations.” Another sticky point is the role of the Palestinian commandos in Jordan. They, together with Syria and Iraq have rejected the peace plan, despite the response from King Hussein described by the State Depart rnent as positive. A key question asked by Israel is whether Jordan will be able to control, the commandos and whether any cease-fire can be effective along the Jordanian border without commando agreement The United States was understood to be putting heavy pressure on Israel for a general acceptance of the peace plan, while assuring it of full American backing for its security while the details are worked out Observers said that once Israel provided its expected qualified acceptance, it was likely that the next stage would be further discussions on two parallel fronts. One would deal with the specific conditions for the

No details of the Jordanian acceptance have been published but informed sources said that Jordan warned Washtington it could not be responsible for the actions of the guerrillas. The central committee of guerrilla organisations, which represents the 10 major groups, met early today to discuss Jordan’s acceptance and agreed to: Unify guerrilla military action.

Form a committee to explain the guerrilla stand. Invite Arab personalities to a meeting of the Palestinian National Congress, a sort of Government-in-exile. Seek a meeting of Jordanian and Palestinian nationalists to study the situation.