Treaty in three weeks?

Press, 10 October 1978, Page 9

Treaty in three weeks?

NZPA-Reuter Cairo Egypt expects that a peace treaty with Israel will be concluded within two or three weeks, senior Foreign Ministry sources said in Cairo yesterday. But the sources said that Egypt’s delegation to peace talks in Washington this week would insist on linking the treaty to progress to-

wards resolving Palestinian, claims for self-rule in Jordan’s West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The sources said Egypt’s delegates to the Washington negotiations with Israel, starting on Thursday, were expected to return home wih a peace treaty within three weeks. Dr Boutros Boutros Ghali, minister of State for Foreign

Affairs, said in a magazine interview: “We go to Washington this time to end the peace negotiations there, and we i will not return home without preparing the peace ; treaty for signature.” : But Dr Ghali, who will be a member of the Egyptain delegation led by the Defence Minister (Lieuten-ant-General Kamal Hassan

Ali), also indicated that Cairo saw a link between the peace treaty and progress on the Palestinian issues.

He said Egypt was prepared to postpone discussion on such questions as its claim for compensation for oil anf other resources exploited by Israel in the occupied Sinai desert. But he also said Egypt was committed to take part fully in all steps for the creation of a Palestinian .entity, and that during the period leading up to the signing of a peace treaty “Egypt expects there will be parallel negotiations concerning the West Bank and Gaza.”

.General Ali, speaking after a meeting of his delegation to Washington, was quoted by the Middle East News Agency as saying that an Egyptian draft treaty “takes into consideration what was achieved in Camp David and the Arab interest.” In this context, the senior Foreign Ministry sources said there was a definite concept of a link between the signing of a treaty and progress on the Palestinian issue.

Egypt has said in the past that it plans to ask for SUS2OOO million from Israel in compensation for the exploitation of oil and other resources in the Sinai Desert during the 11 years of Israeli occupation after the 1967 war. Israel has said it wants compensation for Egyptian and other Jews whose property was nationalised under the late President Nasser. In the interview, Dr Ghali also said a direct telephone link would be set up between Washington and Cairo to enable the Egyptian delegation to give President Sadat a daily report on the progress of the talks. The delegation will be negotiating the peace treaty itself, a time-table for Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai, security arrangements, use of the Suez Canal, and other details.

Meanwhile, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Egypt would attend an Arab summit conference on the Middle East only if it were held at the Arab League headquarters In Cairo. The Egyptians had previously withheld any comment on Iraq’s call for a summit to counter the Camp David accord between Egypt and Israel.

The official Iraqi news agency, 1.N.A., said that 16 Arab countries have agreed to attend an Arab summit, but informed sources say several of the States will not attend the meeting if it is held in Cairo.