MIDDLE EAST: A Peace Breakthrough?

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Egyptians and Israelis consider a draft treaty

Pessimism suddenly turned to optimism in Washington. On Sunday morning, less than one week after Israeli and Egyptian negotiators had begun work at Blair House on a peace treaty between the two states that would carry out the Camp David accords. State Department Spokesman George Sherman announced that they had basically achieved their goal. "Principle issues have been resolved" said Sherman. A draft of the treaty, consisting of nine articles and a preamble, had been sent to Jerusalem and Cairo for study and approval. Negotiating work would continue this week on three annexes dealing with such issues as the exact dates of Israel's military withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula and the sale of Egyptian oil to Israel.

The Israelis initially were a bit more guarded than was the American spokesman. Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan conceded that he had no personal problems with the draft, although he added that "a lot of things still need to be resolved." Some observers felt that Dayan may have been excessively cautious in order to avoid antagonizing hard-liners in Premier Menachem Begin's cabinet, which will discuss the draft at meetings this week.

Once again, as at Camp David, a last-minute intervention by President Carter helped save the day. Initially, the Israeli and Egyptian negotiators had arrived in Washington convinced that the details of the treaty could be quickly settled. On Tuesday, when the President summoned the two delegations to separate meetings at the White House, it was apparent that some snags had developed. Carter, however, insisted that "there are no particular problems, no crises."

Two days later, the President invited both delegations to lunch. Dayan told Carter—within full earshot of the press —that the negotiators might not be able to reach an agreement without the presence of their heads of state.-At week's end, both delegations were prepared to head home for consultations about the apparent obstacles.

It was then that Carter made his move. On Friday night, he spent 3½ hours with Dayan and Defense minister Ezer Weizman; on Saturday morning, he spent an hour and a quarter with the Egyptians. A source privy to the conversations said that the President "did some extremely straight talking—especially with the Israelis—reminding them what both sides had agreed to at Camp David and what had to be done." Dayan and Egypt's Acting Foreign Minister Boutros Ghali then met for 4% hours with Alfred Atherton, the State Department's roving ambassador to the Middle East. After that came the negotiators' tentative agreement on a draft treaty.

The most serious problem to emerge at Blair House dealt with what is known in diplomatic jargon as "linkage"—the possible relationship between an Egyptian-Israeli treaty and subsequent pacts between Israel and other Arab states over such problems as the future of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.