President Anwar Sadat told the Egyptian National Assembly today that Egypt would extend the current cease-fire on the Suez Canal for another 30 days, and that further extension would depend on Israel’s proposing a specific time-table for withdrawal from the occupied areas during that extension. The current cease-fire had been scheduled to run-out tomorrow. The President’s announcement had been preceded by an announcement on Cairo radio last night of the planned extension and a hasty disavowal within a few hours by Government spokesman Munir Hafez of the broadcast. There was no explanation for the mixup. The new extension will continue the cease-fire until March 7. Jordan had previously indicated it would go along with whatever decision Egypt made. The formal announcement also had been preceded by a flurry of rumors involving Dr. Gunnar Jarring, the United Nations special Mideast peace emissary, and the Big Four.
According to one of the reports. Egypt had agreed to give Dr. Jarring 30 more days to produce a formula, in the current indirect Arab-Israeli talks, to advance those negotiations which, despite UN Secretary General Thant’s report last Tuesday of some progress. Egypt had insisted had produced no real results. Another report was that the Big Four planned, at a meeting in New York today, to appeal to the Mideast combatants for an extension of the cease-fire, which would have had the effect of making the major powers a party to both the cease-fire and to the indirect talks, a Big Four role Israel opposes and Egypt favors. It was reported from Israel that military authorities apparently had expected the Egyptian extension. There were no signs on either side of the canal of any special preparations for a renewal of the shooting. But Israeli sources expressed concern, prior to the Cairo announcement, that within that month of extension, the Sadat government might not be able to resist pressure from its military leaders to launch a cross-canal blow.
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