Peace Bid Viewed as Insincere, Egyptian Reportedly Tells Israel

JERUSALEM — A visiting senior Egyptian official told Israel on Sunday that Arab states and the PLO view Israel’s peace initiative as insincere, Israeli sources said.

The two-day visit by Butros Butros Ghali, deputy foreign minister, was the first to Israel by a high-ranking Egyptian since the Palestinian uprising erupted in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip 18 months ago.

Sources at his meeting with Israeli Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres quoted Butros Ghali as saying: “The feeling is widespread in the Arab world that the initiative is not serious and aimed merely at gaining time.”

The Israeli peace initiative, endorsed by the government but criticized by hard-liners in Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s rightist Likud Party, calls for Palestinians in the occupied areas to elect negotiators for peace talks with Israel.

Progress With Arafat

“In the past 12 months, we have made not inconsiderable achievements with (Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser) Arafat. Now it is up to Israel to make its move,” the sources quoted Butros Ghali as saying.

The army lifted a weeklong curfew from most areas of the Gaza Strip just hours before Butros Ghali arrived. An Arab youth shot by troops during protests in the Gaza Strip’s Jabaliya refugee camp died of his wounds Sunday.

Butros Ghali told Peres that Israel will have to provide more details of the proposed Palestinian elections to attract an Arab partner, the sources said.

The Egyptian said Shamir’s hard-line statements that he would not allow international supervision of the vote, or the participation of East Jerusalem Arabs, does not inspire confidence among Arabs that Israel is sincere.

Commitment to Peace

Israeli commentators said Butros Ghali’s visit underlines Cairo’s commitment to peace with Israel, just two weeks after Egypt was readmitted to the Arab League following a 10-year suspension over its 1979 treaty with the Jewish state.

Egyptian diplomats said Butros Ghali will try to persuade Israeli leaders that last month’s Arab summit in Casablanca adopted moderate resolutions on the Arab-Israeli conflict that offer a basis for a comprehensive peace.