Egypt’s offer called “meaningless99

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32525, 8 February 1971, Page 13

Egypt’s offer called “meaningless 99

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, February 7. The offer of the Egyptian President (Mr Sadat) to reopen the Suez Canal was meaningless because Egypt was still not prepared to sign a peace agreement with Israel, said the Israeli Prime Minister (Mrs Meir) in a radio interview yesterday.

“I don’t know why Mr Sadat thinks that the opening of the Suez Canal is something he is giving to us,” she said. Mrs Meir, in an interview in Tel Aviv broadcast on the National Broadcasting Company’s “Nightly News,” said: “He did not even say that the canal would be open and there would be peace with Israel. So what he wants is for us to begin to pull back. There is nothing astonishing about that. That is exactly what he wants, without even a peace settlement. So there is nothing revolutionary in his attitude.

“He does not say at any point that he is prepared to sign a peace settlement.” “OPTIMISTS” Regarding talks between the Arab Governments and Israel, Mrs Meir said: “If Egypt is not prepared to sign a peace agreement with us, what is the sense of the entire exercise?”

But Israel would not call off the talks because “we are optimists,” she said. “Since we are convinced that peace is as necessary to Egypt as to us, eventually, with the help of Dr Jarring, the Egyptian representative will say ‘yes’ to this terrible question: “Will you sign a peace agreement with us or will you not’.”

To that end, Mrs Meir said, the Israelis were prepared to go on negotiating and trying their best to reach a peace agreement. In an interview on Radio Israel, a leading Israeli military commentator said yesterday that Egypt had agreed to an extension of the cease-fire partly because the deterrent balance had shifted in Israel’s favour. General Yeshiyahu Gavish,

commander of the southern front during the 1967 Six-day War, said that Egypt’s gains during the six-month ceasefire period had been the establishment of a missile network and the strengthening of her artillery potential along the Suez Canal. But Israel, too, had exploited the cease-fire, “and we are today stronger than we were when the shooting stopped,” General Gavish said. He was certain that Egypt was still incapable of crossing the canal. General Hayim Herzog, a former head of Israel’s Military Intelligence, also said on Israel Radio that the proposal by Mr Sadat of a partial Israeli withdrawal from the Suez Canal was significant because it was the first time any Arab leader had raised the possibility of a solution by stages. A partial withdrawal would satisfy a major Soviet strategic interest (the opening of the Suez Canal), while considerably weakening Israel’s security, General Herzog said. JORDAN’S ATTITUDE Jordan has officially welcomed Egypt’s decision to extend the Suez Canai ceasefire, which has assured Jordan Valley farmers of another 30 days of peace in which to bring their devastated fields back under the plough.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister (Mr Abdullah Salah) said that President Sadat’s decision to extend the six-month ceasefire had involved no renunciation of basic Arab demands, and said: “We welcome any step taken by out eldest sister, the United Arab Republic, and support her in all her stands.” At the Allenby and Damiya bridges, the links between the east and west banks of the Jordan, all is calm, with the usual slow trickle of Arab traffic between the two halves of the divided country. Jordanian soldiers on guard at the Allenby bridge said that the steel - helmeted Israelis, occupying the west bank of the river, had been in full battle order last Thursday and seemed tense—but they had relaxed on Friday. Apart from the guards at the bridges, there is almost no sign of Jordanian troops in the valley. With the Israelis supreme in the air, the Arab forces are concentrated in the hills to the east, from which their artillery commands the river crossings.