When the autonomy talks resumed in Haifa at the beginning of August, the main areas of disagreement had been well-defined, and both Israel and Egypt expressed their views on the key issues. The opening remarks, although general in nature, did not hide the already existing differences of opinions, but since the process was only at the beginning, the parties did not want to over-emphasise the gaps in their positions. Text of the opening statement follows:
ISRAEL - MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR, DR. JOSEPH BURG:
Your excellency, Mr. Prime Minister, and your worthy members of your delegation. Mr. Leonard and your distinguished delegation, and my fellow colleagues:
It is the fine part of duty to open this meeting. It is the fifth plenary meeting: It is the ninth, taking in account also the meetings of the working groups taking into account personal meetings - so that nobody can say that there are any delaying tactics in our meetings for the common cause: That is, establishing autonomy as it was designed and decided at the Camp David meetings.
First of all, I would like to thank you for the hospitality that our delegation met in Alexandria, and I hope we will live up to the same standards here in the lovely city of Haifa, also a port city on the same Mediterranean that we have in common, and I hope that we will also in this meeting fortify things that we have in common and overcome certain things that we don't have in common.
There are certain clouds, I would say, of accoustic nature coming from over the ocean and also from other countries, and I would not like to refer to them in detail, because I don't want them part of our discussions. I will have the honor to submit what I am thinking about, talking about, to his excellency, the Prime Minister, Dr. Khalil, and I believe that we can overcome this also in order to conduct our meetings in the spirit they were intended.
As you remember, in Alexandria we decided that there should be two working groups: not because they have to facilitate the life of ministers but in order to advance our work. One working group about modalities; one working group about powers and responsibilities. But before I, as your host, will suggest how we proceed, I would very much like to invite his excellency, the Prime Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt, to say an opening remarks if he wants to do so, and then afterwards we will have the duty to go on without the help of the press and the media.
EGYPT - PRIME MINISTER DR. MUSTAFA KHALIL:
Excellency Dr. Burg and distinguished members of the Israeli delegations, Excellency Ambassador Leonard, distinguished members of the American delegation:
On behalf of our delegation, I would like to thank the Israeli government for their welcoming and hospitality, and I am sure that your hospitality will excel ours.
We are doing really our best to achieve what has been agreed upon in Camp David, and we are bound by the framework for peace in the Middle East, and we are working to try to arrive at a formula to provide the West Bank and Gaza with full autonomy, and according to this, we have agreed to establish two working committees: one committee will deal with the modalities for elections; the other committee will deal with the responsibilities of the self-governing authority.
I would like to thank the two committees, the two working committees, for their work, and they have submitted reports to us which will be discussed later.
Of course, one cannot expect that we can arrive from the first meeting to a complete agreement on all the points raised in the two working committees. But we are not dealing, really, in substance with things which are connected to us. But as I mentioned before we are dealing with a substance which really concerned a party which is not existing on the table.
Our determination is to make the modalities and the working and the responsibilities and to show to the world, and to the whole world, that we are really working for a very noble aim, And this noble aim is to establish a comprehensive peace in a successful result. Thank you, Dr. Burg.
UNITED STATES - MR. JAMES LEONARD:
Thank you, Mr. Minister Dr. Burg, Mr. Prime Minister, Dr. Khalil.
I also welcome this opportunity to be back here and to continue our search for a comprehensive peace. This plenary, as you all know, follows the meeting of the working groups in Alexandria last week, and having participated personally in the work of those working groups, I would simply like to say that I found that work that was done in Alexandria to be most useful, and I think that it further defined the issues which are to be examined by the plenary, and which must then be worked on in substance. And I would like also to add that I found the tone and the character of the discussions which went on in Alexandria to be most positive although of course there were strong views expressed on one side and on another with regard to particular items that should or should not be on our agenda. Nevertheless the work was conducted in a serious and friendly way and I think that it's fair to say that the commitment of all of those participating in the work the committee to solve our problems and to facilitate the achievement of a comprehensive peace, was very evident in the way that this work was examined there. And it is certainly in that spirit that our delegation will be approaching the work of this plenary here in Haifa this week. Thank you, Dr. Burg.