ONE ROUND OF TALKS Israeli Negotiator Returns Home

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32386, 27 August 1970, Page 15

ONE ROUND OF TALKS Israeli Negotiator Returns Home

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, August 26. The Arab-Israeli peace talks slowed today after only one full round of discussions as the Israeli Ambassador, Mr Yosef Tekoah, returned to Jerusalem for urgent consultations with his Government.

The negotiations, the first on permanent peace terms between the sides since the 1949 armistice was concluded, began y esterday with the representatives of Egypt, Jordan and Israel holding separate discussions with the United Nations special envoy, Dr Gunnar Jarring.

But last night Mrl Tekoah, named Israel’s deputy negotiator under the Foreign Minister, Mr Ebba Eban, left New York “for the consultations which are required in order to continue these talks effectively.’’ It was not known how long Mr Tekoah would remain in Israel, but reliable sources said that it might be anything between two days or a week. Diplomats were divided whether Israel was slowing the pace of the talks to avoid detailed discussions with Dr Jarring until Mr Eban joins the talks. Although Dr Jarring announced the,talks would begin at the ambassadorial level, he also hoped foreign ministers would participate at a later stage. Israeli sources see that stage to be in mid-Septeniber when the

I three foreign ministers come to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. ‘Every Day’ On Monday, when he announced that the negotiations would start the next day, Dr Jarring said he hoped to be “continuing every day now without delay.” But after learning of Mr Tekoah’s imminent departure, Dr Jarring did not arrange new meetings with Dr Mohammed Hassan ElZayyat, of Egypt, and Mr Abdul Hamid Sharaf, of Jordan. Mr Sharaf, Amman's ambassador to the United States, returned to Washington last night after standing in for the Jordanian United Nations Ambassador, Dr Muhammad El-Farra, who is due back early next month He has been holding talks in Amman with Government leaders. Dr El-Zayyat was the only representative to the peace talks still in New York today.

He told Dr Jarring yesterday that he was available for further discussions “24 hours a day, seven days a week,” but sources said that no time had been set for his next meeting with the United Nations envoy. Two Calls Mr Tekoah yesterday called twice on Dr Jarring, the first time to state his Government’s basic bargaining position, the second time to be briefed on the Arab positions before flying to Jerusalem for consultations, diplomatic sources disclosed. He, like his Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts, pledged his Government’s willingness to participate in the talks with good will. But their expressions of hope did little to hide .the many deep disagreements that have kept the three Governments from negotiating for the last 21 years. The fragility of the ceasefire agreement is also certain to overshadow the early rounds of talks. Mr Tekoah said the “best way the Arab Governments could prove their desire for peace would be to terminate their violations of the ceasefire.” Israel Accused

Shortly afterwards, Dr ElZayyat accused Israel of breaking the cease-fire agreement within three hours of it coming into effect on August 7. But he said Cairo bad not complained publicly because “if one sails one way, one shouldn’t row in the other." Asked to comment on Israel’s charges that more than 100 “acts of aggression” had been committed from Jordanian territory since the cease-fire began, Mr Sharaf said that Mr Tekoah had “obviously not mentioned anything about the repeated Israeli aggression.”

However, diplomats expected that such charges and counter-charges would not seriously affect the talks so tong as there was no general break-down of the cease-fire along the Suez Canal and no major successful offensive into Israel by militant Palestine guerrillas.