The interview was conducted by Walter Cronkite in New York. This was the first time that such a programme was aired and it dealt with the proposed visit of Sadat to Jerusalem. The Egyptian President insisted that it was his own initiative and that there were no prior conditions to the visit. Mr. Begin announced that he would be making a statement in the Knesset the next day and would be sending an official invitation to Sadat on that day. Following is the AP abbreviated version of the joint interview:
Sadat: I'm just waiting for the proper invitation.
Cronkite: You must get something directly from Mr. Begin, not through the press?
Sadat: Right. Right.
Cronkite: And how would that be transmitted, sit, since you do not have diplomatic relations with Israel?
Sadat: Why not through our mutual friend, the Americans...
Begin: ... I will, during the week, ask my friend, the American Ambassador to Israel to find out in Cairo from his colleague, the American Ambassador to Egypt, whether he will be prepared to give us his good offices, and transmit a letter from me to President Sadat inviting him, formally and cordially, through the good offices of the United States, to come to Jerusalem.
(Cronkite asked if there were any conditions to Sadat's visiting Israel.)
Sadat: The only condition is that I want to discuss the whole situation with the 120 members of the Knesset and put the full picture and details of the situation from our point of view.
Cronkite: If you get that formal invitation, how soon are you prepared to go?
Sadat: Really, I'm looking forward to fulfil this visit in the, in the earliest time possible.
Cronkite: Would that... that would be, say, within a week?
Sadat: You can say that, yes.
Cronkite: You said that you wished to address the Knesset, the parliament in Israel...
Sadat: That's right.
Cronkite: Would you also engage in substantive discussions?
Sadat: I may exchange our views or so with Begin... yes.
Cronkite: What about the opposition from some of your fellow leaders in the Arab world to this visit... they have expressed this to you, I gather?
Sadat: I didn't tell anyone of my colleagues and I didn't ask them to agree or not agree upon this. I felt that my responsibility and my responsibility as President of Egypt also, is to try all means to reach peace. And I took this decision for sure, there are those who are against it, but as much as I am convinced that this is the right way and my people back me, I shall be fulfilling the whole thing.
Cronkite: Has the PLO leader Yasser Arafat expressed any opinion on this visit to Premier Begin?
Sadat: Not at all. Not at all because as I told you, Walter, this is my initiative.
Cronkite: What is the ultimate that could result from such a meeting... what's the best way you could hope for?
Sadat: We are in a crucial moment. There has never been a suitable moment in the Arab world to reach genuine peace like we are now. So I want to put the fact before them and in the same time we want to discuss what will be the other alternative if we can't achieve peace. It will be horrible. Believe me, horrible.
Cronkite: You suggested that perhaps a Palestinian now, a professor in an American university, might be a proper representative and solve this problem of who would represent the Palestinians at Geneva. Now, we... you said that Yasser Arafat had agreed with that ... ?
Sadat: Yes.
Cronkite: However, now the information director for the PLO at the Tunis meeting of foreign ministers says the whole idea is absurd.
Sadat: You know we are accustomed to this in the Arab world. And I anticipated this. But you see, I'm, as I am telling, you, I'm quite calm.
(Cronkite later asked Begin when he would move this peace initiative from long-distance dialogue to a person-to-person meeting.)
Begin: Tomorrow I will make a statement in our parliament in the afternoon and I think that immediately after this statement I will get in touch with Mr. Lewis, my good friend the American Ambassador, and so find out. But I can assure you, Mr. Cronkite, as we really want the visit of President Sadat, we really want to negotiate the peace, to establish permanent peace in the Middle East, I will not hesitate to send such a letter.
Cronkite: Are there any pre-conditions... are conditions under which you will be inviting him to...
Begin: ... no pre-conditions and I understand that also President Sadat doesn't put forward any pre-conditions. He has got his position, we have our position, let us sit together around the table and talk peace, and everybody will bring his position.
Cronkite: He hinted to me this morning that he thought it might be possible that he would be going to Israel if the invitation was forthcoming within a week or so. Do you think that's realistic?
Begin: Very good news, well, if President Sadat is ready to come next week, if he tells me that he will come next week, I will have to postpone my trip to Britain because I am supposed to go next Sunday to London at the invitation of Prime Minister Callaghan. But I suppose that Prime Minister Callaghan will also be agreeable rather to postpone that meeting for a week and rather have President Sadat in Jerusalem, because it is hoped to have peace in the Middle East. But if President Sadat would come after my return from Europe I will come back home next Friday after my visit to London and to Geneva and then he may come the other Monday. But anyhow, any time, any day he's prepared to come, I will receive him cordially at the airport, and go together with him to Jerusalem, also present him to the Knesset and let him make his speech to our parliament. I will follow him onto the platform and greet him, receive him. I think it's now up to President Sadat to carry out his, let me say, promise, or bring into fruition his readiness to come to Jerusaelm.