M.E. peace negotiations ‘in final stages’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33917, 9 August 1975, Page 15

M.E. peace negotiations ‘in final stages’

GVew Zealand Press Association —Copyright > TEL AVIV, August 8. Ihe Israeli Defence Minister (Mr Shimon Peres) has said that Israel and Egypt have moved into the final stages of negotiations on an interim peace agreement in the Sinai Desert and that the results should be known in a few weeks.

> at Egyptian and Israeli spy- ' posts on either side of the passes, but did not mention i an Israeli presence. Israel I wants to run its own installs ations even- if United States ; technicians operate them. r 18 killed ; Yesterday, Israeli forces shelled two villages in South ’ Lebanon for two hours, the Palestine News Agency . (W.A.F.A.) has said. The agency did not report ((any casualties in the shelltpng of the villages of Alma pAsh-Shaab and Varin, 800 t! yards from the border with ; Israel. The agency also said that! • Israeli gunboats had been) i sighted north of Tyre and) I reported Israeli helicopter! : activity in the same area. Palestinian commandos were in a state of alert to meet any eventuality. Tyre and its suburbs, including a refugee camp, were the target of an Israeli air and sea attack early on Tuesday, and 18 persons, in- 1 eluding four army officers,; were killed.

Israeli Government sources in Tel Aviv said the country’s top-level negotiating team had scheduled a meeting for today to draft a reply to Cairo’s latest negotiating position. Mr Peres told the United States-Israel Chamber of Commerce in Tel Aviv yesterday that Egypt’s proposals, as relayed by Washington, “will make a good base for the continuation of the talks.” “We find ourselves today in the. final stages of negotiations on an interim agreement, but we will have to wait a number of weeks before we know the results,” he said. The Israeli national radio

t said that the United States ] Secretary of State (Dr Henry ■ Kissinger) was pressing IsJ rael to come up with I quicker replies and speed r the negotiations so that he I could resume his Middle East diplomatic shuttle by the middle of this month. Dr Kissinger made the point in a note that came %with the Egyptian response, Uthe radio said. v "I Foothold aim j I Israeli Government f; sources said Egypt’s latest response narrowed the gap y: between the two nations, but the toughest problems were still unsolved, including Isj raeli withdrawal from the -(strategic Gidi and Mitla ' Passes and proposed United; States-Israeli electronic i )i early warning stations overlooking Egypt’s Sinai posi-| I tions.

They said that Egypt wanted a military presence up to the western edges of the Mitla and Gidi passes, and that Israel was only willing to allow an advance to the present United Nations buffer zone, west of the passes. Israel is holding out for a military foothold at the eastern ends of the passes, which it captured in the 1967 war with Egypt. Israeli newspapers today reported that Egypt agreed to a United States presence