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Another busy week in the world, ending this day in 1977.
Starting with news on the Carter-Sadat peace talks. Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat called on President Carter the past week to open a dialogue with Palestinian leaders and back a role for them in Middle East peace negotiations. “You would agree with me,” Sadat said in a dinner speech, “that the Palestinians who demonstrated moderation and a great sense of responsibility are entitled to be heard by you and the American people.” Sadat’s plea for the Palestinians, whose status at the peace table remains in doubt, drew no immediate response from President Carter. But when Sadat concluded his remarks in the presence of a small group of reporters ushered into the State Dining Room, Carter gave him a friendly pat on the back and said, “We have some tough questions.” In bis own toast, preceding his guests, Carter reiterated his oft-stated hope for major steps toward solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict this year. Both dinner speeches indicated at least some divergence of opinion. But at the same time, Carter called Sadat his “good friend” and Sadat three times called Carter a “dear friend.”
Meanwhile – th outlook for a new agreement between America and Russia on limiting strategic weapons grew gloomier this week when Cyrus Vance, Secretary of State, said that Russia would ” change the basis of the talks” if it pursued its idea of including American forward bases in Europe. Mr Vance said he had told Mr Brezhnev, who raised the issue, that ” in the past the question of forward based systems and the Soviet equivalent has never been included. “If this were to be interjected into the SALT talks it would be total change from the past,’ Mr Vance said. It is clear that if Mr Brezhnev persists, the ensuing dispute will be even more fundamental than the controversy whether America’s Cruise missiles and Russia’s Backfire long-range bombers should be included in a new arms agreement. When Dr Kissinger out the 1974 agreement, putting a limit on numbers of missiles and bombers. he made it a main objective to exclude forward-bases systems and the British and French nuclear weapons.
And Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin announced his withdrawal from politics because of a scandal involving an illegal bank account he and his wife held in Washington. Under Israeli law Rabin cannot resign as prime minister until next month’s general election but in a radio and television interview he said he is withdrawing his candidacy for parliament and considering what if anything he can do to terminate his responsibilities in the present government The surprise announcement less than six weeks before the election deepens the turmoil of Israel’s already turbulent political scene. Observers expect the ruling Labor party to turn to Defence Minister Shimon Peres whom Rabin narrowly defeated at the party’s convention in’ February.
And that’s just a sampling of what happened this week, ending on April 9, 1977 as reported by CBS Radio’s Washington Week and The World This Week.
