The Terms of the Treaty

"Technicalities, legalisms and phrases." So Jimmy Carter once described the issues that kept the Egyptians and Israelis from signing a peace treaty for six months after the Camp David summit. In fact, negotiations were completed on a framework for settling nearly all of the major issues at the September summit, which ended with Israeli Premier Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signing two accords. The first was an outline of a comprehensive Middle East peace; the second was a general description of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Highlights of the overall settlement, including the details worked out last week:

Sinai. Israel this week will submit to Egypt a detailed timetable for the initial withdrawal of its forces from the Sinai Peninsula. Israeli troops will pull back until, nine months after the signing of the treaty, they are all positioned east of a line running from El Arish to Ras Muhammad, the southernmost tip of the Sinai. Over a three year period, Israel will remove its military forces and settlers from all of the Sinai. Most of the area will be demilitarized; Egypt can station only a single division on the peninsula and only within 31 miles of the Suez Canal and Gulf of Suez. The U.N. will station troops along the Gulf of Aqaba and the eastern border of the Sinai. Within a nearly two-mile-wide strip on the other side of the line, Israeli forces will be limited to four battalions. The two airfields that Israel built in the Sinai will be restricted to Egyptian civilian use.

Egyptian-Israeli Relations. One month after the Israeli forces have moved behind the El Arish-Ras Muhammad line, both countries will exchange ambassadors and establish normal diplomatic relations. Egypt will end its economic boycott of Israel and grant Israeli ships and cargoes the right of passage through the Suez Canal. Israel will be permitted to buy oil from the Sinai fields that will be returned to Egypt. If Israel runs short of oil during the next 15 years, the U.S. has promised to make up the difference. Egypt and Israel will open their borders to each other's citizens and will eventually sign agreements on other trade and cultural exchanges.

West Bank and Gaza. Negotiations on Palestinian self-rule on the West Bank and Gaza Strip will begin one month after the treaty is ratified and be completed within twelve months. Elections of Palestinian local councils, the first step toward self-government, are to be held promptly, though no date is specified. One month after self-rule is working, Israeli military forces on the West Bank and Gaza will be withdrawn behind Israel's 1949 borders. There will then begin a five-year transition period, during which the final status of the West Bank and Gaza will be negotiated. Still to be decided is the eventual fate of Israeli settlements and whether Israel will retain military outposts on the West Bank. If West Bank Palestinians refuse to participate in the talks, Begin agreed orally to let self-rule be established in Gaza. One of the trickiest issues, the status of predominantly Arab East Jerusalem, is not even mentioned in the treaty or Camp David agreements.

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