217. Telegram From the Embassy in Egypt to the Department of State1
292.Nasser took occasion my call on him today (on other subject) to inform me that he had yesterday communicated his decision to Secretary General of UN that GOE had decided to terminate talks on Burns’ proposals. He stated the Israelis had obviously provoked incident Gaza August 222 with objective of applying pressure to obtain for domestic political purposes their goal of establishing direct contact, outside UN auspices, between parties. He stated Israel must finally come to learn that these tactics would not work and that he was not going to agree to any position that did in fact, or even gave appearance, of shoving UNTSO aside. I stated my regret that he had felt such step necessary, and that, while I understood principle he trying to maintain, doubted that world opinion position would be good. Did not carry matter further as purpose of call had been discuss other matters of overriding importance reported separately.
In discussing with Embassy GOE decision terminate talks, General Burns added that after Nasser informed him of this decision they discussed progress of talks to date and that Nasser expressed disappointment that there had not been greater attention given three points covering joint patrols, obstacles and neutral zone. While GOE would not meet with Israeli it would be glad study proposal Burns might wish submit coordinating these points.Burns said that he agreed submit his views and that in effort place latest incident in proper perspective he pointed out that Israelis had broken off discussions on two earlier occasions.
As Gohar did not mention breakdown of discussions in his conversation with Embassy representatives or Burns yesterday forenoon, it appears GOE decision may not have been taken until after Burns talk with Kheirat Said (Deputy Foreign Minister) which, according Burns, made no progress whatsoever.
Having heard both Gohar’s and Burns’ views reference progress Gaza talks, Embassy confirmed in its views set forth Embassy telegram 256.3 I realize we all shared the hope that these discussions would see a bilateral connection developed between Israel and Egypt [Page 391] but we should not lose sight of fact that even more important would be gradual development of an area of cooperation between the two and that at this stage best chance of achieving this would be to permit Egyptians to feel they can cooperate without sacrificing principle of no direct contact.
In light of the forthcoming developments having a more important bearing on basic issue, I do not recommend any action on matters set forth this telegram at this time. Suggest however that Department bear in mind desirability approaching Secretary General UN along lines preceding paragraph at appropriate time.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 674.84A/8–2455. Confidential. Received at 8:14 p.m. Repeated to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, London, Paris, and USUN.↩
- On August 22, Israeli and Egyptian troops engaged in armed conflict near the U.N. truce hut at Kilo 95 in the Gaza Strip. One Egyptian officer and two Egyptian soldiers died in this action. Documentation on this incident isibid., 674.84A.↩
- Document 199.↩