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Rogers' proposals grow out of a United Nations Security Council resolution passed five months after the 1967 SixDay War. Resolution No. 242, as the diplomats refer to it, called on the Israelis to withdraw from occupied territories, in exchange for acceptance by the Arab states of Israel's sovereignty within secure and recognized borders. It also called for a "just settlement of the refugee problem."
Prickly Issues. The Rogers plan urges both sides to agree to a cease-fire of at least 90 days. Once the guns are stilled, Swedish diplomat Gunnar V. Jarring will act as an intermediary and seek agreement on such prickly issues as the Israeli-occupied territories and the Arab refugees (see box page 18). In the letters Rogers wrote setting forth his proposals, he urged the parties involved "to move with us to seize this opportunity. If it is lost, we shall all suffer the consequences."
In Moscow, Soviet leaders apparently persuaded Nasser to take Rogers up on his proposals. Between visits to a health spa to treat a circulatory ailment, Nasser spent a good deal of his time conferring with the Russians on his response. Back in Cairo, he chose to reply on the 18th anniversary of the coup that deposed dissolute King Farouk. Sitting down to spare his legs, Nasser was unusually restrained in an address to 1,200 followers packed into a Cairo University hall. In large measure, his object was to prepare his 33.5 million people for a possible shift in policy. The bulk of the speech, salted with salutes to Russia for its aid and to other Arab countries, was greeted with steady applause. Toward the close of his 2-hr. 10-min. address, Nasser finally brought up Rogers' proposals. "In all honesty," he said, "we found nothing new in this." But, he added, "it is an opportunity." The audience, surrounded by signs proclaiming "The struggle will continue whatever the sacrifices" and "Israel must be defeated in the field of psychological warfare," did not applaud.
Cease-Fire. The day before Nasser spoke, Egypt's Foreign Minister, Mahmoud Riad, handed a note to U.S. Diplomat Donald C. Bergus, who heads the "U.S. interests section" of the Spanish embassy in Cairo—an arrangement that allows Washington to maintain diplomats in the Egyptian capital even though Cairo severed relations with the U.S. at the time of the 1967 war. Not only did the Egyptians agree to a limited ceasefire, but they also anticipated to Bergus that it would have to be accompanied by an arms freeze along the canal and a pledge that neither side would use the time to improve its military position. Nasser's note contained a standard Arab demand that Israel return all occupied territories and solve the Arab refugee problem. Missing, however, was the customary insistence on Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories as a precondition for negotiations —something the Israelis have repeatedly said they would reject. Scanning Riad's message in Washington, Rogers noted with diplomatic understatement that he was "greatly encouraged."
Not long afterward, Soviet Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Dobrynin was whisked past newsmen into Rogers' office. During his 20-minute visit, Dobrynin emphasized that Nasser's reply plainly demonstrated Egypt's sincerity.