Special to JTA Sadat Proposes West Bank Security Arrangements Be Worked out by Israel-egypt-jordan-p

President Anwar Sadat unveiled today a proposal for an Israeli-Egyptian-Jordanian-Palestinian committee to work out security arrangements on the West Bank and listed the security provisions which Egypt offered today in Cairo in response to those issued yesterday by Israel. The exclusive interview was given to this reporter in his capacity as the diplomatic correspondent of the Jerusalem Post. It was the first exclusive interview with an Israeli newspaper. (Editor’s note: Landau is also the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s Israel Bureau Chief.)

The Egyptian leader asserted bitterly and repeatedly “it is not security but land which Israel was demanding.” In forceful and somber tones he charged that “the new spirit” engendered by his peace initiative had not affected Israeli policy-making. “It lives with me only,” he declared.

In a wide ranging 75-minute conversation at his winter home overlooking the Nile, Sadat also indicated that he could accept Premier Menachem Begin’s self-rule proposal for the West Bank and Gaza as a transitional measure provided Israel pledged in advance that the Palestinians would ultimately have self-determination. The length of the transitional period could be agreed upon without difficulty, he said.

While he inveighed bitterly against Israel’s settlements in Sinai and termed Begin’s ideas of the Israeli army defending them after the peace “absurd,” Sadat carefully did not rule out exchanging of territory in Sinai as a possible last resort. He also did not turn down some sort of Israeli or joint Israeli-Jordanian patrol policing the West Bank even after a Palestinian state was set up there. This would be for the Israeli-Egyptian-Jordanian-Palestinian committee to decide, he said.

WANTS TO SEE ISRAEL SECURE

Outlining specific proposals for security provisions in Sinai, which would include early warning stations manned by a third party, and a joint Israeli-Egyptian military committee to meet regularly in EI Arish and Beersheba, Sadat said: “But say this to your people. You can drop all points (of his security provisions)–instead of them I would have preferred to agree to the fact that our intention is that you live securely. To that end we shall be opening the border, we shall be normalizing relations.”

But on the question of withdrawal itself–total, unreserved withdrawal from Sinai and the West Bank–Sadat was adamant. His clear warning throughout the interview was that without this, the peace initiative would collapse. Reviewing the recent past, the Egyptian President asserted that there need have been no October War in 1973 had Golda Meir responded to his February 1971 declaration of readiness to sign a peace accord with Israel.