U. N. Chief Asks Egypt to Reconsider Its Stand on Akaba and Gaza

Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold will report to the General Assembly on the status of Israel’s compliance with the troop withdrawal resolutions by Friday, and the General Assembly will meet again next Monday, according to the timetable envisaged here today.

Between now and Friday, Mr. Hammarskjold faces the monumental ask demanded by many delegations including Israel’s of formulating solutions to the Gulf of Akaba and Gaza problems. It is understood here that Mr. Hammarskjold has already asked the Egyptian Government to reconsider its total disapproval of Israel’s positions regarding freedom of passage in the Akaba waterway and regarding the future status of the Gaza Strip.

There were insistent reports here today that the Secretary General has asked Dr. Mahmoud Fawzi, Egypt’s Foreign Minister, who has been here for two months, to go to Cairo to discuss the latest developments with Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser. It was still uncertain whether or when Dr, Fawzi was going to Egypt.

Mr. Hammarskjold yesterday held two lengthy two-hour sessions with the principal protagonists, Israel’s Ambassador Abba Eban and Dr. Fawzi. A member of the secretariat who undoubtedly knows the situation said that each of the conferences was “both exhausting and exhaustive.”

Reports that Mr. Eban had laid Israel’s concrete proposals on the complicated Gaza and Akaba situations before the UN chief were described here as premature. stead, it was said, Mr. Eban was discussing primarily the need for simultaneous and related measures” in connection with complete withdrawal of Israel troops from Sharm el Sheikh.

Mr. Eban, who is in Washington today attending President Eisenhower’s inauguration, will return this week. Meanwhile, Israel’s talks are understood to be proceeding between other leading members of Israel’s delegation and highranking members of Mr. Hammarskjold’s staff.