Rabin, in Visit to Egypt, Vows Drive for Peace

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, in the first visit of an Israeli head of state to Egypt since 1986, Tuesday reaffirmed his determination to forge an agreement with the Arabs that will bring security to Israel and peace to the Middle East.

“All the countries, all the peoples here have seen too much blood, too much suffering, too much painful results of war and terror, and I believe the time has arrived . . . to divert from the course of confrontation and embark on the course of peace,” Rabin said during a groundbreaking summit that came just eight days after he took office.

“I hope the Madrid way will produce results,” Rabin said, referring to the U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace talks, which convened in Madrid last October. “We are determined to exploit it to the maximum.”

After three hours of meetings with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Rabin laid a wreath on the tomb of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat that said in Hebrew, “With Respect for the Man of Peace,” then visited a Jewish synagogue in Cairo.

Mubarak, appearing in a joint press conference with Rabin at the Kubbeh Palace in Cairo’s posh Heliopolis district, said Egypt is not satisfied with Israel’s partial freeze on Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip but said it is too early in Rabin’s tenure to expect major agreements.

“Bearing in mind that Mr. Rabin is only one week in office, we didn’t go through so many details or ask for miracles,” Mubarak said. “I can’t ask him for too many things. We have to give him enough time.”

Mubarak said he has given a “positive” response to Rabin’s invitation to him to visit Israel but remained characteristically noncommittal about when and how.

In Amman, U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III launched a three-nation tour of Arab capitals after a visit in Israel and said the United States rejects the Rabin government’s distinction between political settlements in Arab population centers and settlements in strategic areas deemed vital to Israel’s security.

“We make no differentiation when we say settlements are an obstacle to peace,” Baker said.

But that distinction may not have much practical significance. During his visit to Israel, the secretary of state made it clear that the general shift in priority by the new Labor Party government away from populating the territories and toward economic development may be sufficient for Israel to obtain the U.S.-backed loan guarantees that it wants to help pay for the cost of new immigrants.

And Baker acknowledged that the United States has said in the past that Israel may keep some security “installations” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Arab diplomats have said they hope Baker will be able to conclude an agreement in which Israel would freeze all settlements in the occupied territories, at least during the course of talks on autonomy for the Palestinians.

They said that Mubarak, during Tuesday’s meeting, had planned to press Rabin to commit to the principle of exchanging occupied territory for peace.

“Rabin needs to take more steps on his part to satisfy the worries of the Syrians and to clarify his positions on the Palestinians,” said one Arab source familiar with the talks. “As far as the Syrians are concerned, I think he needs to say that what he believes in the land-for-peace formula applies to the Golan Heights.”

In the joint press conference with Mubarak, Rabin remained vague about Israel’s interpretation of U.N. resolutions calling for the exchange of land for peace and did not elaborate on his government’s order last week temporarily halting new settlement-building in the occupied territories.

Mubarak said the temporary freeze “is a good step on the right track, and we appreciate it. But we need much more.”

Mubarak said the Arab states’ offer to drop the economic boycott against Israel remains tied to a freeze on all settlement-building.

Egyptian officials appeared clearly optimistic after the talks, which they viewed as the most serious steps toward peacemaking between Israel and the Arabs since the peace talks began in Madrid.

“We believe that the atmosphere is now different. There is a greater degree of mutual confidence than previously. . . . You couldn’t have had a meeting like this between Egypt and Israel a month ago,” Osama Baz, Mubarak’s top political adviser, said after the meeting.

But he cautioned that it is too early to expect concrete agreements. “You’re not going to see tangible results tomorrow.”

Rabin’s spokesman, Gad Ben-Ari, told reporters that Israel was not expecting “any big dramas” to result from the meetings.

“The very fact that the two are sitting together is a big drama. . . . We are very excited about this,” he said.

The Israelis had made it clear they would be seeking to expand Israel’s bilateral relations with Egypt, which have remained cool despite 13 years of official peace between the two countries.

Israel has, for example, sought expanded tourism and economic cooperation agreements, something Egypt has resisted as long as the Palestinian issue remained unresolved.

The last Israeli-Egyptian summit was six years ago, when then-Israeli Prime Minister (now Foreign Minister) Shimon Peres met Mubarak in Alexandria, Egypt. During the last Israeli government, Mubarak refused to meet with Rabin’s predecessor, Yitzhak Shamir, who had opposed the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.

Today, Baker is scheduled to meet with Syrian President Hafez Assad. (The meeting, originally set for Tuesday, was postponed because Assad’s mother died.)

The Syrian leader has balked at joining regionwide talks on normalizing relations with Israel before getting commitments that Israel will withdraw from occupied lands. Rabin’s determination to move forward quickly with Palestinian autonomy talks has only deepened Assad’s fears that Syria’s Golan Heights, captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East War, could be lost in the shuffle and remain in Israeli hands.

At one point Tuesday, a Jordanian reporter asked the secretary of state whether he had come to the Middle East as part of President Bush’s reelection campaign.

“If I were undertaking this trip as a political matter, I wouldn’t have spent the better part of nine or 10 months . . . getting into position so we can move (toward peace talks),” Baker replied.

Times staff writer Jim Mann in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this article.