Mrs. Meir to Address General Assembly; Eban Sees Possibility of Truce Extension

Premier Golda Meir left today to attend the 25th anniversary session of the United Nations General Assembly. She was due to land in New York early this evening. Her second visit to the United States in two months has her scheduled to address the General Assembly on Wednesday and to attend President Richard M. Nixon’s UN Day dinner in Washington next Saturday. Foreign Minister Abba Eban, who returned here Friday from the United States where he had addressed the General Assembly and met with administration officials and leaders of Jewish communities, declared yesterday that Egyptian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Riad “lied” in his UN address on Friday. Mr. Riad accused Israel of truce violations in the Suez Canal standstill zone. “I do not think there is a single foreign minister representing any country on earth capable of telling two such falsehoods. that Egypt is not building a missile belt (in the truce zone) and that Israel is building a boundary line along the Suez Canal,” Mr. Eban said. The Foreign Minister said however that the cease-fire might continue beyond its Nov. 5 deadline whether or not Egypt entered into a written agreement for its extension. The Egyptians, he said, may simply not open fire after the deadline expires.

DEPLOYMENT OF SOVIET MISSILES APPARENTLY MEANT TO CONCEAL ‘IMMENSE BUILD-UP’ OF WEAPONRY

Mr. Eban said the U.S. probably did not expect to obtain full satisfaction on its remands for a “rectification” of the cease-fire violations but on the other hand, Israel saw no reason to modify its demands in that connection. Mr. Eban told newsmen when he landed at Lydda Airport Friday that he had not met the Egyptian foreign minister. Asked if he had met any other Arab delegates, he replied, “no comment.” He said there was nothing new in the Russian peace plan for the Middle East published in Pravda last week. Commenting on the plan in a radio interview Friday night, Minister-Without-Portfolio Israel Galilee, said its timing was more significant than its contents which contributed “nothing new.” Informed sources here said that the deployment of Soviet SAM-2 and SAM-3 missiles in the Suez truce zone was apparently meant to conceal an “immense build-up” of offensive weapons behind the Canal zone. According to the sources these include the Soviet-made 203 mm. howitzers, an artillery piece of deadly accuracy over a 17-mile range and the so-called “Ganef” missiles which can be used as either ground-to-air or surface-to-surface projectiles. The sources said the multi-purpose “Ganefs” were densely concentrated on the Canal’s west bank, presumably to cover preparations for an Egyptian task force to cross the waterway and secure a foot-hold on the Israel held east bank.

Deputy Premier Yigal Allon presided at today’s cabinet meeting in the absence of Mrs. Meir. The cabinet meets in extraordinary session tomorrow to hear Mr. Eban’s report on his talks at the UN. According to sources here, Mrs. Meir may meet again with President Nixon when he addresses the General Assembly later this month. She is scheduled to visit Canada for a meeting with Premier Pierre Trudeau and will stop over at London on her way home for talks with Prime Minister Edward Heath of Britain. The itineraries of her visits to Canada and Britain have not been completed. (The Sunday Times of London reported today that the Heath government appeared to be leaning closer to Israel’s point of view in the Middle East than its predecessor government of former Premier Harold Wilson. The reason, according to the Times, is British revulsion over the recent hijackings by Palestinian terrorists and Egypt’s violation of the Suez cease-fire.)