Egypt today appeared to be back-tracking from reports last week that it considered the cease-fire along the Suez Canal null and void. The semi-official Cairo newspaper Al Ahram, which reflects the views of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, accused foreign press media of having “distorted” a statement made last Thursday by the official Government spokesman, Mohammed H. el-Zayyat. Al Ahram confirmed that the Cairo Government acknowledged all United Nations resolutions, including the cease-fire resolution of June 10, 1967 and the Nov. 22, 1967 measure setting forth principles for a Mideast settlement.
Foreign Ministry sources here said yesterday that Egypt has not informed any UN organ of its intention to abrogate the cease-fire agreement with Israel. UN cease-fire observer headquarters here also denied that the Egyptians had raised the issue in talks between Lt. Gen. Odd Bull, chief of the observer corps, and the Egyptian Deputy Foreign Minister Salah Gohar last week. The talks were said to have been concerned mainly with the safety of UN observers in the Canal area who have frequently come under fire in recent weeks.
The Al Ahram report was in effect a reply to a U.S. statement of concern over reports that Egypt did not consider itself bound by the cease-fire resolution. The concern was voiced by State Department spokesman Robert J. McCloskey. The U.S. was also reported to have conveyed to the Egyptian Government through diplomatic channels an appeal to restore the cease-fire along the canal. Egyptian artillery shelling has been going for more than two weeks and Egyptian commandos have made a half dozen forays against Israeli positions on the canal’s east bank. The situation was considered sufficiently urgent by UN Secretary-General U Thant to warrant his special report to the Security Council last week warning that the cease-fire was nearly dead and that a virtual state of war existed in the zone.
It was in reaction to Mr. Thant’s report that Dr. el-Zayyat made the statement in Cairo last week that Egyptian guns will continue to fire across the canal so long as Israel continued to fortify its positions on the east bank. Al Ahram quoted Dr. el-Zayyat as having said “the cease-fire decisions cannot remain in force forever. If this were the case, we should have agreed that Israel should have new borders on the cease-fire line.” Al Ahram claimed that news agencies had distorted the statements.
It was reported from Cairo yesterday that Egypt had informed the UN that it did not consider the Suez Canal to be the cease-fire line envisioned by the Security Council’s June 1967 resolution. According to Cairo, the line should be east of the canal along positions allegedly held by Egyptian troops, when the resolution was adopted, from which they were subsequently driven by Israeli forces acting in violation of the cease-fire.
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