Egypt gloomy about talks

Press, 9 August 1980, Page 9

Egypt gloomy about talks

NZPA Cairo Egypt has expressed pessimism over the chances of success of the Palestinian, autonomy talks with the United States and Israel. The assessment was made by the Minister of State for Foreign - Affairs (Dr Butros Ghali) in remarks published in the Egyptian press. It came amid a continuing controversy between Egypt and (Israel over the fate of Je-i rusalem.

“After 14 months of negotiations, I consider the chances of success of these talks as very poor,” Dr Ghali said. The Israeli Parliament last week approved a bill making all of Jerusalem, including East Jerusalem captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the capital of Israel. The Israeli move prompted Egypt to suspend the talks in which the United States is participating as mediator.

The Egyptian Vice-Presi-dent (Mr Hosni Mubarak) is scheduled to receive a letter today from the Israeli Prime Minister (Mr Menachem Begin) concerning Israel’s action. The message is in response to a letter from President Anwar Sadat. Dr Ghali is an active member of the delegation to the talks. He has consistently pointed out that even though there have been no tangible results on important issues in the last 14 months of negotiations, the

fact that the parties were talking was an indication that the discussions had a good chance of succeeding. Egypt and Israel had established a deadline of midMay for completion of negotiations for the autonomy of the 1.2 million Palestinians in Gaza and the Bank of the Jordan River.. In New York, Islamic Conference countries, angered by Israel’s Jerusalem policy, have decided to use a tough American plan for sanctions against Iran as their model for a prooosed boycott against Israel, diplomatic sources have said.

Delegates of the 40-nation conference, who met behind closed doors, thus raised demands they made in a first draft two days ago of their tentative resolution for United Nations Security Council action.

The United States is considered certain to veto any call for sanctions.

By asking for even tougher measures than - before, the Islamic States were tempting Britain and France also to use the veto, diplomats said.

The Islamic States’ revision of their earlier proposals and the need for further extensive private consultations appeared likely to postpone the start of the Security Council debate until next week when it would coincide with the Democratic Party convention in New York.