208. Telegram From Secretary of State Kissinger to the Embassy in Egypt1
Secto 6062. For the Ambassador from the Secretary. Subject: Meeting With PM Rabin. Please pass the following message from me to Fahmi and Sadat.
[Page 777]1. Secretary has just completed a three-hour meeting with Rabin,2 which focused on clarifications which the Israelis have been seeking from us regarding bilateral assurances, the elements of the interim agreement, and how such an agreement relates to the Syrian problem and a Geneva Conference.
2. The principle therein which the Secretary wishes to report is that the tentative position discussed by Rabin with us at today’s meeting, while reflecting improvement, fell short of what we believe are the necessary requirements from Egypt’s point of view, and we therefore pressed for further changes both with respect to where the Israeli forward line would be drawn as well as on the question of access to the oil fields. After much discussion and firm insistence on our part, Rabin agreed to take into account the considerations which we outlined and he will discuss the matter further with his Cabinet tomorrow.
The Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Simcha Dinitz, will return to Washington by midweek at which time we will then be in a position to brief Ambassador Eilts in detail on where matters stand on the interim agreement so that Hermann can report back to Fahmi and President Sadat fully about Friday.3
3. You should assure Fahmi we are very mindful of the fact that President Sadat will be making a major speech on the 23rd and that the question of the UNEF extension is very much to the fore as well. In this connection you should say that it is the Secretary’s judgement that President Sadat will be able to make a judgement as to whether the interim agreement is achievable when he receives your full report upon your return from the Washington briefing. In short, our present assessment is that we are hopeful but we are still uncertain at this point that what you will be able to present to him at the end of next week will meet Sadat’s principal considerations.
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy Files. Secret; Immediate; Nodis; Cherokee. Repeated to the Department of State. The telegram was sent from the Secretary’s aircraft.↩
- The memorandum of conversation of the meeting between Rabin and Kissinger, which took place in Bonn on July 12 from 10:15 a.m. until 1:17 p.m. at Schloss Gymnich, is in the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, CL 158, Geopolitical File, Israel, July 12–22, 1975.↩
- July 18.↩