An armistice agreement will be signed with Lebanon this Sunday or Monday, the Mapai evening newspaper Hador reported today.
The publication added that Col, Yigal Yadin, Israeli Arty chief of operations, is likely to sign the agreement in behalf of Israel. The signing of the pact is said to have been discussed in Beirut Wednesday by G## William Riley, the U.N. mediator’s chief of staff, and Lebanese officials. Similar discussions are believed to have taken place here yesterday.
The evacuation of Israeli forces from the Rafah area under the terms of the Israeli-Egyptian armistice pact began today and will either be completed today or tomorrow. It is now hoped that the evacuation of Faluja by Egyptian troops will be accomplished in two or three days rather than the five originally estimated.
In a comment on the Rhodes pact, the left-wing Mapam last night welcomed the conclusion of the agreement but criticized provisions under winch Israel gave up the coastal strip from Gaza southward and the el Arish area. These concessions, Mapam said, resulted from the “ucwarra####” evacuation by Jewish troops of the el Arish area occupied by the Israelis in the last engagement in the Negev. The Mapam also demanded that all future agreements, particularly the one concluded with Trans Jordan, be first submitted for study to the Constituent; Assembly.
The members of the U.N. Palestine Conciliation Commission, who arrived hero yesterday at the conclusion of a t##r of the Arab capitals, today spent two hours closeted with Premier David Ben Gurion, at his home. Later, the three members of the Commission were received at tea by President Weizmann at his residence in Rehovoth. They are scheduled to return here tonight and the French member ##aude de Boissanger, is expected to visit Nazareth tomorrow.
Following President Weizmann’s invitation to him to form a government, Ben Gurion last night began negotiations with the leaders of various parties on the formation of a coalition Cabinet. He met with representatives of the General Zionists, the Religious Bloc and Mapam last night and was to meet with representatives of the Progressives and the Sephardim today. No information concerning the discussions with the General Zionists and the Mapam was available, but both groups will soon meet with Ben Gurion again.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
