BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Former President Jimmy Carter today urged the Reagan administration to 'stand resolved' behind the Camp David agreement, calling it the only workable basis for Middle East peace negotiations.
'The apparent intention of the Prime Minister (Menachem) Begin to retain full control of the West Bank and Gaza is contrary to the commitment he made at Camp David,' Carter told a news conference.
Carter said he was 'extremely disheartened' by the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the massacre in Beirut.
'However, this recent turmoil in the Middle East is further proof of the need for the Camp David agreement to be honored,' he said.
He urged President Ronald Reagan and Secretary of State George Shultz to 'stand resolved' behind the 'terms and spirit of Camp David.'
'Although it was tardy by about 18 months, I was very pleased by the speech President Reagan made recently about his intentions for a Middle East peace.
'It was absolutely compatible with the Camp David agreement,' Carter said.
The United States should stick to its promise not to negotiate with the PLO until it recognized Israel's right to exist, Carter said.
'However, I believe it is important to pursue with the Palestinian leaders through indirect means -- with some of them through direct means - a solution to the present deadlock concerning Middle East progress,' he said.
Carter urged a firm stand against the Soviet Union in the current talks in Geneva on strategic and intermediate-range nuclear weapons. But he said Reagan's pipeline sanctions had come too late to have any hope of success and predicted they will be lifted and something less controversial substituted.
Carter is on a tour of Europe to publicize his forthcoming memoirs.
