Office of the Historian

101. Memorandum From William B. Quandt of the National Security Council Staff to President Carter1

Washington, October 22, 1978

SUBJECT

  • Today’s Talks with the Egyptian Delegation

We met with the Egyptian Delegation this afternoon for four hours to discuss Annex 3 which deals with normalization of relations. Boutros Ghali had received reports from his Ambassadors in the Arab world which caused him considerable concern over mounting Arab opposition to the prospective Egyptian-Israeli Treaty. He was also embarrassed by reports out of Israel that the treaty is virtually in final form.

Boutros made one suggestion that he thought might help Egypt in the Arab world. At the time of the signing of the treaty, Sadat would write a letter to both you and Prime Minister Begin spelling out his views on a comprehensive settlement and on the West Bank and Gaza issues. The language of the letter would be taken from the Camp David framework agreements. Boutros asked whether you could reply to Sadat in a letter which would reaffirm our willingness to be a full partner in future negotiations and to work for a comprehensive settlement. Roy and I told him that we would like to see his draft language of their letter, and that we would seek to get your general reaction to this procedure.

In the talks, we reached full agreement with the Egyptian delegation on a revised text2 of Annex 3. We will show this to the Israelis on Wednesday when they return,3 and we anticipate that they will find the draft acceptable, perhaps with a few minor problems. We do not see any major difficulties, however.

Tomorrow4 the military delegations will seek to reach final agreement on the text of Annex 1. This will put us in a position by Wednesday when the Israelis return to accelerate the pace of the negotiations, with the objective of reaching full agreement by the end of the week.

  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Country File, Box 55, Middle East: Peace Talks Between Egypt and Israel, 10/19–31/78. Secret. Printed from an uninitialed copy. A handwritten notation at the top of the memorandum reads “DACOM’d to CD 10/23.” According to the President’s Daily Diary, Carter spent October 23 at Camp David. (Carter Library, Presidential Materials)↩
  2. A copy of the revised text has not been found.↩
  3. Dayan and Weizman returned to Israel for consultations on October 21. They were scheduled to return to Washington on October 25.↩
  4. October 23.↩