Israel urged to accept Europeans in peace force

Press, 26 November 1981, Page 9

Israel urged to accept Europeans in peace force

NZPA-Reuter Washington The United States has privately urged Israel to accept the participation of four European countries in the Sinai peace-keeping forces and to ignore their statements indicating support for the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Administration . officials and Israeli sources said yesterday that the United States Ambassador to Israel (Mr Samuel Lewis) had urged the Israelis not to reject the offer by Britain, France, Italy, and the Netherlands to take part in the Americanorganised international force. But State Department officials said that initial reports from Israel were that the Prime Minister (Mr Menachem Begin) was inclined to ask his Cabinet, at an extraordinary meeting now set for tomorrow, to refuse the Europeans a role in the Sinai force because of their individual statements diverging from the framework established by the Camp David accords of 1978. Before • the Europeans’ statements on Tuesday Mr Begin had said that no country would be permitted to join the 2500-member Sinai force unless it was on the basis of support for the Camp David agreements. Because of the Israeli warning. the American Secretary of State (Mr Alexander Haig) sought to persuade the four European ] Governments to revise a statement they had intended ’ to issue earlier this month 1 and involve himself in intricate beind-the-scenes 1 negotiations to find a more ■ acceptable formula. I

The United States had told Israel, Administration officials said, to ignore the individual European statements and to view the European Camp David agreements from which the Egyp-tian-Israeli accord flowed. As an appendix to the peace treaty, the United States pledged to form an international force to monitor the terms of the agreement if the United Nations failed to do so. Israel will make its final withdrawal from the Sinai on April 25, but will only do so if the international force is in place in the Sinai at least a few weeks before then. In Fez, Morocco, Arab leaders were to start a summit conference today expected to centre on a Saudi peace plan whicn could mark a turning-point in more than 30 years of conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Crown Prince Fahd, author of the plan and head of the Saudi delegation, is expected to press for the conference’s endorsement of his eight proposals in the face of opposition from Arab hard-liners. If adopted, the plan, which implicity recognises Israel’s right to exist, would give new direction to the search for peace in the Middle East. Israel has rejected the plan outright. Eleven Arab kings and presidents have arrived at Fez for the conference, which is expected to last four days. Eight members of the 22State Arab League were sending low-level delegations. Egypt, whose member-

ship was suspended in 1979 when it signed a peace treaty with Israel, was not invited. Foreign Ministers preparing for the conference since Sunday referred the. Saudi plan to their leaders after failing to agree on how to tackle the thorny issue of recognition of Israel. Libya’s chief delegate, the Foreign Liaison Secretary (Foreign Minister Mr Abdelati Obeidi), forecast yesterday that Saudi Arabia would be forced to withdraw the proposals because most Arab countries either opposed them or were hesitant. Libya saw the plan as a betrayal of the Arab nation likely to cause even greater splits in the Arab world than those that followed the Camp David accords, he said. Arab diplomatic sources said the Saudis still hoped that they could save the conference and their prestige by persuading Syria and the P.L.O. to accept the proposals, if necessary through a compromise wording. The Saudi plan, first announced in August, foresees Israeli withdrawal to the borders which existed before the 1967 Middle East war. It proposes an independent Palestinian State on the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem as its capital. Syrian and Palestinian delegates to the preparatory meetings criticised the reference to Israel’s 1967 borders, arguing that earlier Arab summit conference resolutions had called for a single Palestinian State in the whole of pre-1948 Palestine.