Ceremony to seal M.E. pact

Press, 26 April 1979, Page 9

Ceremony to seal M.E. pact

NZPA-Reuter Cairo Egypt and Israel will seal their peace treaty today with an exchange of documents at an American earlywarning station in the Sinai Desert. The exchange of instruments of ratification at Om Khosheiba, where 200 s United States technicians (watch Sinai military movements, puts the accord en|ding 30 years of hostilities into immediate effect.

The one-hour ceremony heralds the start of Israel’s two-stage withdrawal from the Sinai and the setting up of normal relations between the old adversaries.

A Foreign Ministry Undersecretary, Saad Afra, will head the Egyptian delegation at the ceremony. Israel’s representative is Eliahu BenElissar, director-general of the Israeli Prime Minister’s office. One month after the ceremony. negotiations should start between Israel, Egypt, and Palestinian representatives on the shape of autonomy which Israel will grant inhabitant., of the occupied West Bank of Jordan and the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptian Prime Minister (Dr Mustapha Khalil) told reporters that pressure from most other Arab countries against the treaty would not affect the decision to go ahead with the ratification ceremony.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, two of Egypt’s main financial backers, broke relations with Egypt over the issue. They were among 19 Arab League members which decided at a conference in Bagdad last month to impose political, economic, and diplomatic sanctions on Egypt for signing the treaty which they considered a unilateral deal and not part of a comprehensive Middle East settlement. A few hours before the ratification ceremony, the Israeli Defence Minister (Mr Ezer Weizman) is due in Cairo for talks on preparations to hand over the Sinai coastal town of El-Arish to Egypt on May 26. Mr Weizman postponed his visit after the Palestinian attack on northern Israel last Sunday.