Documents / FOIA release

FBIS Coverage of the Middle East Peace Talks: 1977 December

Central Intelligence Agency · 65 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is a Central Intelligence Agency release of Foreign Broadcast Information Service coverage of the Middle East peace talks from December 1977. It collects British, Israeli and Soviet press and radio items on President as-Sadat's initiative and the planned Cairo conference. It also covers Prime Minister Begin's visit to London, Secretary of State Vance's regional tour and the Knesset debate on the peace plan. It contains no material on unidentified aerial phenomena.

  • p. 3 …The Americans are especially trying to convince King Juhayn. - Britain also promised Mr Begin to help…
  • p. 4 …Prime Minister, both President as-Sadat and King Husayn appeared on British television yesterday. Did you…
  • p. 6 …They will want to examine the conditions under which King Husayn will be ready to join…
  • p. 22 …DEC 7 TA ((PRESS CONFERENCE AT THE KING DAVTD HOTEL IN JERUSACEM GIVEN BY PRIME MINISTER…
  • p. 23 …TO JERUSALEM AND THEN WENT TO THE KING DAVID HOTEL AND THEN WE HAD A PRIVATE…
  • p. 24 …11 Dec 77 TA Press conference at King David Hotel, Jerusalem, given by Prime Minister Begin…
  • p. 25 …to Jerusalem and then went to the King David Hotel and then we had a private…
  • p. 37 …you inform King Husayn? As-Sadat For sure, I shall be informing King Husayn about all…
  • p. 40 …MiddleEast will develop, as his majesty the king of Morocco said, into a paradise on earth…
  • p. 41 …cooperation and development, as his majesty the king of Morocco said, into a paradise on earth…
  • p. 48 …predecessors did at Al-Aqsa Mosque to King 'Abdallah. One single bullet No wonder that the…
PPROVED FOR RELEASE CIA HISTORICAL CO *CTION DV ON AR7O-14 13NOV201
V. 27 Dec 77 , D 22 EGYPT
[As-Sadat] That is rirht.
[Question] When you speak of progress being made on the question of withdrawal, may I
ask Mr Begin what he will interpret such progress as referring to specifically.
[Begin] Resolution 242 does not commit Israel for total withdrawal. Therefore, this
matter is a matter of negotiations, to establish those secure and recognized boundaries
which is mentioned in the second paragraph of Resolution 242. And 'this is the crux
of our problem, to negotiate the conditions for. peace in order to establish peace
throughout the Middle East. This is what we are going to do in the next few weeks and
months.
[Question] [Name indistinct] Israeli radio, Arab station. Mr President, Premier Begin
expressed the hope that President al-Asad join the peace talks. My question is,
Mr President, will Syria eventually join the talks? Is there any chance and if so how
will this affect the rejection group in which it is a member?
[As-Sadat] Well, I cannot answer this. You should ask President al-Asad. I can't
speak for him, 'as I told you. And whenever they find it convenient for them to join,
we shall welcome them.
[Question] [Name indistinct] of the Chicago DAILY NEWS. President as-Sadat, I would
like to ask you first of all, since this conference which you called as the preparatory
conference for the Geneva conference seems to me as if you are moving away from Geneva
and turning the conference into a Cairo conference, and if so or if not so could you
explain if the Cairo conference preparatory for Geneva--as it was set out to be--will
reconvene at the committee level simultaneously with the rest of the political committee
or will they meet alternately?
[As-Sadat) Or will they meet?
[Question] Alternately, not simultaneously? -
[As-Sadat} It has always been my conviction that without good preparation Geneva
will be a failure. I said this during my visit last April in the United States. I made
my proposal. I sent proposals for a working group under Vance to start contacting all
the parties concerned and a meeting to be prepared before Geneva for the preparations.
What we are doing now here in Cairo is the preparation for Geneva. Geneva is not excluded.
[Question] Sir, what about the simultaneous meetings of the two committees, sir? Will
they meet at the same time in Jerusalem and in Cairo?
[As-Sadat] We are, as I said, they will be working in the context of the Cairo conference
and, as I said, they will report to the plenary.
[Question] Huda Tawfiq, of AL-JUMHURIYAH newspaper. Mr President, this means that the
U.S. secretary of state will come here and Mr Waldheim will come here?
[As-Sadat] Let us hope so. But for sure we cannot go back; we are going forward.
[Question] The political committee will meet in Jerusalem. Does this mean that also
Waldheim and Secretary Vance will also be in Jerusalem?

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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 65 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.