Official circles denied reports in several newspapers today that Israel had received a request to free 15 merchant ships that have been stranded in the Suez Canal since the June, 1967 Arab-Israel war via the canal’s southern exit. According to reports from Cairo, Egyptian Government spokesman Mohammed el-Zayat, said today that the go-ahead has been given for a new survey of the southern half of the canal with a view to extricating the trapped vessels.
Israeli sources said that any new proposals to free the ships had to be submitted through Lt. Gen. Odd Bull, United Nations Secretary General U Thant’s cease-fire observer team chief. They noted that Israel agreed 13 months ago that the ships should be freed via the southern exit, but the Egyptians prepared to dredge the northern reaches of the waterway without obtaining Israel’s consent as stipulated by the cease-fire agreements. After Israelis fired on an Egyptian survey launch, the survey was called off and no further attempts have been made to free the the ships.
Gen. Bull reported to Mr. Thant today for the second time in two days that the situation along the Suez Canal was becoming “serious” again. He referred to a new rash of machinegun and rifle fire across the canal which, he said, appeared to originate mainly with Egyptian soldiers.
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