Geneva, Dec. 21: The first face-to-face West Asian peace conference got off to a shaky start to-day with both Israel and Egypt threatening to pull out in dispute over seating arrangements, delaying the opening session by 40 minutes. The U.N. Secretary General, Dr. Kurt Waldheim, gavelled the session to order at 11-10 a.m. (15-40 IST), bringing together Israel, Egypt, Jordan, the U.S. and the Soviet Union to discuss solving the 25-year Arab-Israeli conflict.
Both Israeli and Egyptian sources said their Foreign Ministers, Mr. Abba Eban and Mr. Ismail Fahmy, threatened to pull out of the talks over a last-minute protocol tangle. The U.N. officials had arranged seven separate tables in the heptagon and assigned the Israelis to sit next to the empty table where the Syrians, who are not attending, would have been. Mr. Eban, saying that this amounted to “visually ostracizing” Israel, told Dr. Waldheim that he would “go home” unless this was changed. With other delegations arriving amid strict security — some members even had their own briefcases searched — Dr. Waldheim ushered them into separate rooms and began shuttling from one to another with proposals as the 10-30 a.m. (15-00 IST) starting time passed. Mr. Fahmy threatened his walk-out when Dr. Waldheim proposed alphabetical seating that would have put Egypt next to Israel. Instead, Mr. Fahmy proposed that the U.N., the U.S. and the Soviet Union be seated between the middle row antagonists. This plan was accepted.
