674.84A/1–2950: Telegram
The Ambassador in Egypt (Caffery) to the Secretary of State
93. Minister of Foreign Affairs has issued following communiqué:
“Newspaper Haboar [Hador] of Tel Aviv has stated that the government of Nahas Pasha has decided to undertake direct talks with Israel in order to resolve the Palestine problem and that it has charged Abdel Moneim Mustafa Bey, Egyptian representative to Conciliation Commission, to go to Ankara to negotiate with Sassoon, the Israeli Minister.1
The Minister of Foreign Affairs declares that this information is contrary to truth and has no foundation whatever. The present Egyptian Government has no intention of entering into direct talks with Israel; on the other hand it continues to cooperate with the Conciliation Commission for the execution of UN decisions and the Lausanne protocol. It works for the repatriation of Palestinian refugees in their homes, taking care to assure them of their existence and safeguard their property. It is this solution of the refugee problem which is in accordance with justice and right and which will produce peace and stability in the ME.[”]2
Sent Department 93, Department pass Tel Aviv 14.
- Embassy Tel Aviv transmitted the text of the Hador article to the Department of State in despatch 74, February 7 (674.84A/2–750).↩
- Despite the nature of the communiqué quoted in telegram 93, Ambassador Caffery advised, on January 30, of assurances given to him in “pertinent quarters” that the plans for talks with the Israelis had not been discarded but that there might be a delay of two or three months (telegram 100 from Cairo, 674.84A/1–3050).↩