Gen. Ensio Siilasvuo, UNEF commander, met over the weekend with Israeli and Egyptian chiefs of staff to discuss final preparations for the fourth and next to the last phase of the disengagement of forces on the Suez Canal front that is to begin later this week.
According to the time-table of the disengagement agreement, Israeli troops will have evacuated the entire west bank of the canal at the end of this fourth phase, with the last Israeli soldier crossing to the east bank of the waterway on Feb. 21. This will mark the end of the 28-day period, which began with the first Israeli troop pullback on Jan. 25. The remaining 12 days until the completion of the disengagement on March 5 are to be used for the redeployment of Israeli forces along the new defense lines east of the UNEF buffer zone, some 20 kilometers east of the canal.
During this fifth and last phase of the disengagement, Israeli forces are to maintain a bridgehead on the east bank of the canal until the final pullback. The thinning out of Egypt’s Second and Third Armies on the east bank of the canal to a token force of 7000 men, 30 tanks and 36 medium range artillery pieces, will also have to be completed by then.
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