A second ship carrying cargo consigned to Israel will pass through the Suez Canal within the next 10 days, informed sources told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency here today. The first ship to carry an Israeli cargo through the canal, the Greek freight or Olympus, chartered by Israel’s Zim Lines, sailed through the waterway without incident last Friday and is presently discharging her cargo of Rumanian cement at Eilat. The Olympus will load an Israeli cargo and return to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal.
The name, flag and port of origin of the second ship was undisclosed and the date of its passage through the canal was not announced for security reasons. But Israeli sources made it clear that there were no delays involved in scheduling the second passage.
The sources were responding to a report in Maariv that Secretary of State Henry A, Kissinger had urged Israel, through Ambassador Simcha Dinitz, not to send cargoes through the canal while Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was still in the U.S. Sadat will return to Egypt later this week.
Israeli officials had no comment on the report today. According to Maariv, Kissinger explained to Dinitz that he requested a delay because while Sadat was out of Egypt he could not issue “appropriate instructions” regarding the passage of the vessel. Dinitz reportedly asked Kissinger if that meant that Israel would have to wait for specific instructions from Sadat every time it wanted to send a cargo through the canal, Kissinger said that was not the case and that his request applied only to the second ship, Maariv reported.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
