Andrei A. Gromyko, the Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, may have “engineered” Egypt’s decision last spring to go to war with Israel, according to Washington’s last envoy to Cairo.
Richard H. Nolte, named U.S. Ambassador to Cairo last March, but never working at the post since he had not had the opportunity of presenting his letter of credence to Egypt’s President Nasser, said here that it was reasonable to speculate that Mr. Gromyko’s visit to Cairo last March had “a hand in triggering the confrontation with Israel.” The USSR, he said in an interview here yesterday, had apparently told Nasser that Israel would attack Syria in May, and had encouraged Nasser accordingly to prepare militarily for action against Israel. Mr. Nolte officially resigned from his abortive post last Friday.
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