Dayan Says Egyptians Expected to Remove Guns in Day or Two

Defense Minister Moshe Dayan declared today in the Knesset that the Egyptians were expected to start removing, within a day or two, unauthorized artillery from the thinned-out area they now hold on the Suez Canal east bank to conform to the Israeli-Egyptian disengagement accord. He made the statement in response to an urgent motion on the agenda from Menachem Beigin a leader of the opposition Likud.

Davan added that the removal promise had been made by Egypt to Gen, Ensio Siilasvuo, commander of the United Nations Emergency Force, which occupies the buffer zone between the Egyptian strip and the new Israeli Sinai position. Dayan said he did not know whether the Egyptians were keeping their promise.

Dayan reported that UNEF officers originally intended to check the weapons removal during a regular weekly inspection in the middle of next week. However, the Defense Minister reported, Siilasvuo had sent a cable to the Israeli chief of staff yesterday, declaring that if Israel insisted, the inspection would be carried out tomorrow. Davan said Israel asked for a Thursday inspection. He reiterated his belief that the Egyptians intended seriously to carry out the disengagement pact.

The Defense Minister said that when the problem was discussed at a meeting of the Knesset and Foreign Affairs Committee, he asked that the issue not be brought up at the Knesset because he felt a public debate would jeopardize the efforts of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He added he did not understand “what interest we have in making it more difficult for the Egyptians to honor the agreement.”

But he also declared that there were still 130 mm. guns in Port Said and Port Fuad which should not be there although their removal was not required by the disengagement accord. He said Israel was continuing to act for removal of those guns.

ISRAEL DETERMINED TO AVOID ESCALATION

Beigin charged that the Egyptians had aggressive intentions. He cited information he said he had received that the Egyptians had built more than ll new bridges across the canal and that they intended to “move tanks and cannons to the east.” Dayan replied that the Egyptians had reduced the number of bridges and that, at any rate, he did not attach much importance to the number of bridges.

Meanwhile Israeli sources said that Israel was determined to avoid any escalation of the fighting on the Syrian front where the 22nd day of daily Syrian shooting ended last night with no Israeli casualties. There have been five Israeli casualties during those 22 days, officials said. The sources said that, in the debate over the strategy to use on the Syrian front, the decision was to refrain from using its air force to knock out the sources of Syrian artillery fire or against strategic targets.

The decision, it was understood, was based on the possibility that the Syrians might respond with their long-range missiles against Israeli cities. But Israeli forces on the Golan Heights have been appreciably strengthened to face any possible Syrian attack to recapture the Israeli-held salient next to the Golan Heights. Meanwhile, the Syrians continued artillery and tank fire today in sporadic shooting which lasted several hours without casualties to Israeli forces.