Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, having solidified his personal control over the machinery of government by purging those involved in an alleged “conspiracy” against him, declared in Cairo yesterday that “Our duty now is to work for the good of the people and open up a new era.” Sadat spoke at the opening session of the country’s new 34-member Cabinet, which established six committees for reorganizing the government’s activities in production, agriculture, planning legal affairs, education, services, and education and culture. Each committee will be directed by a Cabinet minister, with Premier Mahmoud Fawzi heading the planning group. Sadat reiterated that a peace agreement with Israel was contingent on her withdrawing completely from occupied Arab land. He was to speak before the national assembly today. (In Jerusalem, unofficial Israeli reaction today to Sadat’s speech was that he was again “returning to his theological phase,” as one senior official put it. “We are increasingly getting the impression that Sadat is slipping back into the metaphysics of Arab policy.”)
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