But Impact of ‘merger’ Sparks Debate in Paris State Dept, Mum on ‘unification’ Announcement from Egy

The State Department adhered strictly today to its policy of official silence on Middle East developments with a routine “no comment” on the agreement announced in Cairo yesterday by Libya and Egypt of plans to establish a “unified political leader- ship” to unite the two countries. Similarly, the department declined comment on a report from Paris that France plans to offer to serve as an intermediary in the Mideast deadlock when Foreign Minister Murad Ghaleb of Egypt comes to Paris next week on a private visit. The report said France would seek that role on the premise that both the United States and the Soviet Union can no longer be considered able to mediate the Arab-Israeli conflict.

John King, a State Department spokesman, said he was not aware of any US-French discussions on whether France would continue to ship Mirage fighter jets to Libya after yesterday’s announcement of the “unification” plans. France reportedly has delivered about 50 of the scheduled 120 Mirages to Libya. Fears were expressed that Libya might, in the new “unification.” transfer some of the Mirages to Egypt and affect the Mideast power balance.

(French officials said in Paris that they considered it highly doubtful that the new “merger”–announced in Cairo as involving a year to implement–would ever be fully implemented politically or militarily. They added that, in any case, France had a year to impose its Mideast arms embargo on Libya if Libya became a belligerent.

(However, a number of French opposition deputies said they planned to submit written questions to the French Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs when the current Parliamentary recess ends next month.)

Informed sources here expressed the view that the United States would avoid disclosing for as long as possible its attitudes on the Soviet pullout from Egypt and on developments stemming from that action. Among the reasons cited are the continued lack of specifics on the Soviet withdrawal, the uncertainty of Egyptian President Sadat’s future moves, the Soviet reaction to his pullout order and the effects a US statement might have on pro-Israel sentiment in the US relative to the upcoming Presidential election campaign.