Documents / FOIA release
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.
“Cairo”42 pages
PPROVED FOR RELEASE CIA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS DIVISION AR 70-14 13NOV201 V. 6 Dec 77 N 6 ISRAEL Begin added: "The talks in Cairo are only the beginning of the road. It is going to be a long and difficult road. However, I have great hope that we will proceed on the road to peace. President as-Sadat's public remarks and private talks have convinced me of the sincerity of his desire to achieve peace." As for events in Egypt at the present moment, the prime minister said: "The day of the messiah has arrived." With apparent reference to the Israeli journalists who are in Cairo, he added: "I cannot believe how the Egyptians accepted our people in Cairo." Political sources in London maintain that in his talks with- the British prime minister Begin revealed more moderate positions than those that he has shown in the past. He explicitly spoke about a plan to solve the problem of the Palestinian Arabs. Yesterday, Jerusalem expressed surprise at President as-Sadat's remarks about the level of the delegation.. As-Sadat yesterday criticized the composition of the Israeli delegation. Sources in Jerusalem said that the members of the delegation (the director general of the prime minister's office, Eliyahu Ben-Elissar, and the legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry, Me'ir Rosenne) were picked in accordance with the letter of invitation sent by Egyptian acting Foreign Minister Butrus Ghali to his Israeli counterpart, Moshe Dayan, The prime minister and the foreign minister chose the highest level in accordance with the letter of invitation. At the same time, they also considered the possibility of conducting contacts at a higher level, including the possibility of the participation of Dayan and even Begin at the Cairo conference. Jerusalem is not considering any change in the composition of the Israeli delegation. TWO JOURNALISTS LEAVE FOR CAIRO WITHOUT CLEARANCE TA051314Y Jerusalem Domestic Service in Hebrew 1200 GMT 5 Dec 77 TA. [Text] The editor of the weekly HA'OLAM HAZE, Uri Avneri, who is also one of the heads of the Sheli movement, left this morning for Cairo, via Athens. Avneri went as a journalist on behalf of his paper. Our correspondent Avner Tavori reports that the HA'OLAM HAZE editor neither received the compulsory permit from the Interior Ministry nor coordinated his journey with the government press office. Avneri is accompanied on his trip by a photographer from the paper. Commitment From Egypt TA051654Y Tel Aviv IDF Radio in Hebrew 1510 GMT 5 Dec 77 TA [From the afternoon newsreel] [Excerpt] The Egyptian authorities have promised the Israeli authorities they will not allow the entry into Egypt of Israeli journalists not appearing on the authorized list of the government press office. Our correspondent learned this from the director of the government press office, Ze'ev Hefez. Hefez added that Uri Avneri's departure for the Cairo conference was not approved by the government press office, nor did it get the approval of the Interior Ministry.
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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.