IRAN: Score One for Linowitz

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MIDDLE EAST

Israel and Egypt agree to resume the peace talks

"They were fighting for the life of the Camp David peace talks," declared an American official last week, and so it seemed. For more than two days, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Sol Linowitz haggled vigorously with senior Israeli officials in Jerusalem. Finally, after his last two-hour session with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Lino witz emerged with an unmistakable ex pression of satisfaction on his face. Less than a day later, the reason became clear.

After only 45 min. of discussion with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in Alexandria, Linowitz announced that the stalled autonomy talks between Israel and Egypt would be resumed shortly. Linowitz said the two nations would begin preparations for another summit conference, to be held in the U.S., probably shortly after the presidential election in November. What was more, Linowitz later added, Israel and Egypt had agreed to consider a U.S. plan—the details unrevealed—to break the deadlock over Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The negotiations were angrily suspended by Sadat last month after the Israeli parliament passed a bill affirming Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem. Linowitz's task was further complicated by Israel's truculent reaction to a series of diplomatic rebuffs at the U.N., and its reasserted plans to establish six new Jewish settlements on the West Bank. The American envoy was also concerned about the distracting influence of West European initiatives in the Middle East, including a current peace mission by Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Gaston Thorn. The Camp David negotiations, declared Linowitz sharply, are "the only game in town."

During his first meeting with Begin, which lasted almost three hours, Linowitz emphasized that any further diplomatic provocations by Israel—like Begin's threatened move to new government offices in East Jerusalem, where the population is largely Palestinian—could finish off the Camp David peace process. Next day, after a second meeting with Begin, Linowitz announced that the Prime Minister had agreed to make certain concessions that would be "helpful to the atmosphere." Begin later insisted, "We didn't change any detail." But he was evasive on the question of the proposed move of his office to East Jerusalem, suggesting that he might now be willing to back down on this sensitive matter. Linowitz hinted that the Israelis might also be prepared to release some Palestinian political prisoners currently held in Israeli jails and perhaps make some sort of conciliatory gesture toward Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.

Once the Israelis had given Linowitz private assurance of good will, Sadat quickly agreed not only to the resumption of the peace talks but also to the idea of another summit conference later this year. To make it official, Jimmy Carter invited Begin to come to Washington following a visit to New York, which the Israeli Prime Minister had already planned for Nov. 11.