Ambassador Habib returned to the Middle East in mid June. At his meeting with Mr. Begin he was informed that while Israel was adamant that the status quo must be restored, it was not imposing any time limit on his efforts. This was partly in response to requests made by Presidents Reagan and Sadat. Text:
Ladies and gentlemen of the press: Mr. Habib and I, the American Ambassador, and Mr. Draper and Mr. Brown, and the Foreign Minister of Israel, had a very good and long talk. It lasted more than two hours. Many topics were raised -but the main one, of course, was the crisis between Israel and Syria concerning Lebanon, the missiles, etc. Now, at the end of this talk, I made a statement to Mr. Habib. As I said in my speech in Netanya: We don't fix deadlines for you, and you can go on and continue with your diplomatic efforts - we wish you success with those efforts. But, of course, your mission is to bring back the status quo ante, in other words, for instance, to remove the missiles in Lebanon which Syria put in. And for the time being that, did not happen - and Syria is adamant that she is going to keep the missiles in Lebanon. But try again, and no deadline put to you. And then I told him: There is another reason why we don't put any deadline to you. When I was in Ofira and I met with President Sadat, the President of Egypt appealed to me that I should give as he put it, "Ample time" to Mr. Habib. I didn't use that expression. I said: Yes, my friend, we will heed your appeal, and we shall give additional time to Mr. Habib to continue with his diplomatic efforts. And of course, I am going to keep my promise given to President Sadat. And thirdly, just a few days ago, the President of the United States, our great friend in the White House, also said that he hopes and expects all sides to enable Mr. Habib to continue with his diplomatic efforts. And of course we accept the appeal of the President of the United States. And therefore Mr. Habib left my office with the knowledge that he's got enough time to continue. As far as I know, he will go from here, perhaps already tomorrow, to Riyadh, and then I don't know what his itinerary will be. But I will get either directly from him, or through the American Ambassador, all the details about his conversations. I wish him full success.
Questions in English
Q: Do you feel that there is still some hope for success?
A: Well, to say with complete candor, Mr. Habib has not achieved the aim which he wants to achieve. There are no results of the talks from the point of view of his own conviction - that the status quo ante must be restored. But perhaps he will achieve it next week, and therefore we gave him more time. Let us hope.
Q: And if not?
A: Well, I already said to Mr. Habib, and publicly: It cannot go on for an indefinite period. And, there is a consensus in Israel by all parties, except the Communists, that if the diplomatic way does not bring a positive result, then Israel will have to deal with this problem by her own means. And I will not mince words: We
will use military means to get rid of those missiles, which must not be in Lebanon. But we did not put any deadline at all. We gave him all the time necessary. And then we shall see. But it cannot go on for an indefinite period.
Q: Mr. Begin, do you see any chance that military means may be used before the Israeli elections?
A: There is no necessity to answer such a question. The elections do not have anything in common with Israel's security. When we feel, as I already said, that all the diplomatic efforts were in vain, then we shall decide - whenever we shall decide - to use the other means, about which, as I told you, there is a complete, almost complete consensus between all parties in the Knesset.
Q: Will you see Mr. Habib later today or tomorrow?
A: No, I won't see him before he goes to Riyadh, and I don't know whether and when he will be back here. I don't know his itinerary. He may be again in Beirut, he may go to Damascus, he may go elsewhere. But an revoir.
Q: Mr. Begin, some people were rather surprised by the tone of your election speech at Netanya regarding the missiles. They got the impression that you were being rather provocative, and laying down a deadline.
A: It was not provocative. it was a statement of facts. It was a statement of our policy - and I like my tone.
Questions in Hebrew
Q: Did you get the impression that Mr. Habib will find it harder to come up with a solution to the problems because of the operation against the Iraqi reactor?
A: No, this wasn't the impression - although Mr. Habib told me that a number of Arab officials who spoke to him expressed anger at the mission, and said that for them it could be harder. But they are continuing the efforts along with him.
Q: Is there no cause for concern that because of the long period of time that has passed, the (present) situation will become a new status quo?
A: It will not turn into a new status quo. There is no reason to worry about the fact of a status quo post. We are demonstrating patience and there are reasons for this.