Welcome for pact

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33941, 6 September 1975, Page 15

Welcome for pact

(N Z P.A -Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, • September 5. ■ The United States! Secretary of State (Dr Henry Kissinger) has, cleared the first hurdle on the road to winning Congressional approval for the Israeli-Egyptian , interim peace settlement he has just negotiated. '' After facing a barrage of questions from the Senate! Foreign Relations Com-I mittee. Dr Kissinger ap-l peared to have consolidated!] support in the Senate for the accords, which he hopes' will be approved by Con-! gress within a fortnight. Seeking to allay Senators’): fears during their 21 hourjt session, the Secretary of) State said the agreement . provided "the best possi-j; bility for peace in a long!; time." Working figures ! He promised that all)' United States commitments! in the agreements would bell disclosed and vigorously de-it

, nied that there was any sim- ) ilarity between the position- ; ing of American technicians ' in the Sinai Desert to man {electronic early-warning systems and the early United States involvement in Vietnam. He compared the extra cost to the United States in aid to Israel and Egypt (about $US1000m) with the enormously greater cost of any new war in the Middle East. ’ Dr Kissinger did not give .details of the aid the Admin- ! istration will propose in the Inext two or three weeks as I part of the Middle East | package. ) But Senators said later ; that the Administration’s I “working figure” for Israeli laid was between SUS2IOOm land SUS23OOm — SUSISOOm ■of this in military aid. ■ For Egypt, they said, the! Administration wanted about !SUS6SOm in economic assistance. The Israeli aid figure is considerably less than the SUS3OOOm plus that Israel wanted. Responding to fears that! the United States might be) 'Committed to a course of ac-l

tion by secret agreements, i Dr Kissinger told reporters: i “The American people will ■ know everything we are | committed to.” Most in favour But Senators indicated that some understandings not directly involving the United States were expected to remain confidential. The published accords permit the United States to withdraw the 200 Sinai observers unilaterally if they are in danger. Dr Kissinger said he I would be receptive to a) proposal by a Democratic Senator, Mr Frank Church, of Idaho, to write into the Congressional resolution approving the accords a specific provision that the technicians would be pulled out in case of hostilities. Senator Clifford Case, a' New Jersey Republican, said a great degree of understanding had been reached at the closed-door session with the Secretary of State. Even before Dr Kissinger had explained the agreement in detail, a majority of the committee had been ini favour of it.