Sadat presses for talks with Begin

Press, 14 November 1977, Page 8

Sadat presses for talks with Begin

NZPA Cairo President Sadat of Egypt has decided to enter into a dialogue with Israeli leaders, even if that entails the disapproval of his Arab peers, Agence France-Presse has reported.

In talks with American Congressmen in Cairo at the week-end it emerged that the President is counting on going to Jerusalem. However, he has said that if he goes he will be representing Egypt only and not the Arab world.

In a speech last week, the President said that he was prepared to go to Israel and

address the Knesset (Parliament) in Jerusalem in order to get peace talks started. When Mr Begin on Friday said he would welcome Mr Sadat personally, Mr Sadat repeated his pledge to go to Israel if invited. He asked Mr Begin to lose no time in setting up a meeting with the Knesset.

Replying on Saturday Mr Begin said, “Mr Sadat is invited to come to Jerusalem and the Knesset.”

“I invited him explicitly or Friday in the context of ny appeal to the Egyptian people,” Mr Begin said in a radio interview.

(The passage of his Friday speech Mr Begin referred to said: “It will be a pleasure to welcome and receive your President with the traditional hospitality you and we have inherited from our common father, Abraham.)” In the talks with the American representatives it emerged that Mr Sadat has already settled the problem of Palestinian representation at the Geneva Middle East peace conference, proposing with Palestine Liberation Organisation agreement that the Palestinians be represented by an American university lecturer of Palestinian origin. Mr Sadat also thinks the Soviet Union has it in for him personally, and would complicate the search for peace at Geneva. In Jerusalem, an Israeli official has said that the peace declarations made last week by the Israeli and Egyptian leaders were “per-

haps a beginning of a dialogue that might lead to real negotiations between

The official said Egypt’s reaction to Mr Begin's peace appeal to the Egyptian people was “a promising development despite its qualified nature. “The very fact that they reacted instead of ignoring it — as they did in the past to similar calls by Israel — constitutes a forward step,” the Israeli official said.

But, despite the peace declarations, tension in the north along the Lebanese-Is-raeli border remains high although an Israeli Army spokesman said on Saturday that the area was quiet. The spokesman denied Beirut reports that Israeli artillery had pounded southern Lebanese villages for an hour around midnight.

Israeli planes struck southern Lebanon on Friday for the second time in three days. Israel said the planes attacked after missiles were fired at them while they carried out a reconnaissance mission.

The incident came after what Israel called a new Palestinian guerrilla rocket attack on a northern Israeli border settlement. An air strike on Wednesday which killed more than 70 was said by the Israelis to have been aimed at guerrilla bases in southern Lebanon and to have been in retaliation for rocket attacks against the Israeli resort town of Nahariya where three people were killed.