Office of the Historian

31. Memorandum of Conversation1

Camp David, September 6, 1978

PARTICIPANTS

  • AMERICAN SIDE

    • Hermann Fr. Eilts, U.S. Ambassador to Egypt

  • EGYPTIAN SIDE

    • Mohamed Hassan El-Touhamy, Deputy Prime Minister

SUBJECT

  • Talk with Hassan El-Touhamy re West Bank/Gaza

While walking back to his cabin with Hassan El-Touhamy this afternoon, he noted that President Sadat will be informing Prime Minister Begin today2 of his ideas on the West Bank/Gaza. Touhamy made a point of emphasizing to me that Egypt is prepared to assume responsibility for negotiation of the West Bank/Gaza even if Hussein and/or the Palestinians are unwilling to do so. When asked how this squares with the constant comments of members of the Egyptian Delegation that Egypt has no mandate to negotiate the West Bank/Gaza, Touhamy said Egypt needs no mandate to do so. As the strongest Arab power, it [Page 113] has a responsibility to undertake this mission if the other Arabs are too timid to do so.

Touhamy said that he had told Sadat that he, Touhamy, is prepared to act as “marshal” of the West Bank/Gaza for as long as it takes. This would even apply to Jerusalem. He claimed to know Teddy Kollek well and was sure that he could work with him.

Touhamy stressed that Sadat’s purpose in making such a proposal to Begin is to assure the Israeli Prime Minister that Egypt is willing and able to negotiate the West Bank/Gaza, provided the other aspects of the Arab/Israeli problem are satisfactorily resolved. He did not spell out exactly what he had in mind by “the other aspects,” but seemed intent upon emphasizing Egypt’s ability to do whatever is needed with respect to the West Bank/Gaza.

COMMENT: Touhamy’s comments run squarely counter to the views of Mohamed Kamel and Boutros Ghali on this matter.

  1. Source: Department of State, Office of the Secretariat Staff, Cyrus R. Vance, Secretary of State—1977–1980, Lot 84D241, Box 4, unlabeled folder. Secret; Nodis. Drafted by Eilts.↩
  2. See footnote 11, Document 28.↩