242. Transcript of Telephone Conversation Between Secretary of State Kissinger and the Israeli Ambassador (Dinitz)1
D: Dr. Kissinger, welcome back.
K: Thank you.
D: How are you?
K: I’m fine, a little exhausted.
D: I can imagine. I got very good regards [reports] of your visit. The Prime Minister is very thankful for your stop. Dr. Kissinger, I got a message from her this morning to convey to you, the essence of which I conveyed to the General, but in one sentence she wants to assure you personally, confidentially and sincerely that none of the actions taken on the Egyptian front were initiated by us.2
K: Okay. Now, listen, let me ask you something.
D: Right.
K: The Russians have just come in and proposed a Resolution in which they ask for an immediate cessation of all fire and activity. You have no problem with that?
D: No, no.
K: And demands that forces should be withdrawn to the position—you have an ambiguous statement there—where they were at the time of the adoption of the ceasefire. Now we certainly can’t say at the adoption of the ceasefire. We could say where they were at the time the ceasefire went into effect.
D: This I don’t know, the second part, because I don’t know what the situation this minute is in the field. Since they have initiated fighting, we have returned fighting.
K: All right. And then the rest is to get UN observers that are in Cairo into the field. That’s no problem.
D: That I have to check but I understand that Tekoah has asked the same question. He didn’t get a reply yet.
[Page 679]K: Well, would you call?
D: I will call the Prime Minister and I will let you know on the three points.
K: This is the Resolution: “Confirms its decision about immediate cessation of all fire and all military activity and demands that the forces of the sides should be withdrawn to the position where they were at the moment of the adoption of the decision on ceasefire.”
D: Yeah.
K: That we can’t accept because it would have to be when the ceasefire went into effect. (2) “Suggest to the Secretary General of the United Nations to immediately take steps for immediate dispatch of UN observers to supervise the observation between the forces of Israel and Egypt, using for that purpose first of all the personnel of the United Nations which is at present in Cairo.” Now that we have to accept.
D: Yeah. You are for it?
K: For that, we are.
D: Right.
K: And we are for the first one. I have told the Russians that I’m having trouble with “where they were at the time of the ceasefire”.
D: Right, right.
K: But could you let me know—
D: We’ll let you know right away.
K: Can you do it within half an hour?
D: Yeah, sure.
K: Good. Thank you.
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, Kissinger Telephone Conversations, Transcripts (Telcons), Chronological File, Box 23. No classification marking.↩
- The message from the Prime Minister stated that the situation at the front was that the Egyptians had not observed the cease-fire in the very beginning, except for a “very, very short” time. The cease-fire, which Israel had accepted and honestly observed, had to be reciprocal. The U.S. Military Attaché was being constantly brought up to date on every incident and already there had been 17 violations by the Egyptians. She wanted Dinitz to deliver her message personally to the Secretary and to state that the Egyptians were responsible for all the fighting. (Ibid., Kissinger Office Files, Box 136, Country Files, Middle East, Dinitz, June 4–October 31, 1973)↩