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Giza, Egypt Remarks of President Carter and President Sadat Following a Meeting.

March 10, 1979

PRESIDENT CARTER. President Sadat and I have a few words to say about this visit. First of all, on behalf of the American people and myself personally, I want to express my deep thanks to President Sadat and to the people of Egypt for a welcome that has been exhilarating to me and which I will never forget.

We have had hours of discussion about the issue of peace. It's obvious to me that the Egyptian people, from their tremendous outpouring of welcome to me and to President Sadat, genuinely want peace.

It's equally obvious to me that President Sadat and the people of Egypt and Israel are determined to carry out all the provisions, all the agreements made at Camp David, not only for peace between Israel and Egypt but for a full and comprehensive peace involving the realization of the rights of those who have suffered so long, and a step-by-step progression toward peace between Israel and all her neighbors.

We have resolved some difficult issues here. Difficult issues still remain to be resolved.

I will leave here this afternoon, going to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Begin and the officials of the Israeli Government. I'm hopeful that the differences which

still remain can be resolved.

Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT SADAT: Let me seize this opportunity to express really how happy my people and me were to receive President Carter, for whom we hold great esteem and great love, the man who has really, through his patience, perseverance, morale, and principles, has already achieved more than 59 percent of the whole problem, one of the most complicated problems in the whole world.

We are happy to receive President Carter and Mrs. Carter, and we are happy also to ask them to convey to our friends, the American people, who supported my initiative wholeheartedly—we ask him to convey to them our gratitude. And in this. precise moment, I prefer to say only that we had a very fruitful talk. Exactly as President Carter stated, we have overcome some of the difficulties. Some other issues are to be settled.

And in the name of the Egyptian people, my name, and my wife's name, we wish to President Carter and Mrs. Carter all the best wishes and fulfillment and achievement in his visit to Israel.

Thank you.

Note: The President spoke to reporters at 4: 35 p.m. on the terrace at Mena House, the hotel where he and President Sadat held their meeting.

Following the exchange, the two Presidents toured the Pyramids and the Sphinx and then went to Cairo International Airport for the departure ceremony.

Jimmy Carter, Giza, Egypt Remarks of President Carter and President Sadat Following a Meeting. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/248986

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