A dispute over the location of an Egyptian advance warning surveillance post in Sinai was settled today at a meeting between Israeli and Egyptian officers held in the United Nations buffer zone under the chairmanship of Gen. Ensio Siilasvuo, commander of the UN peace-keeping forces in the area. The dispute, which arose over discrepancies between the Israeli and Egyptian maps, resulted in the postponement of the arrival of 200 Egyptian technicians and workers at the site to build the listening post in the Gidi Pass region.
The Egyptian convoy, due there yesterday, will arrive on Wednesday instead and commence construction of a road from the buffer zone to the surveillance position. An Israeli observation post will be set up nearby to keep tabs on what the Egyptians are doing. The dispute was the first serious snag to develop in implementing the Israeli-Egyptian Sinai accord signed by the two countries at Geneva last September.
Today’s meeting, held in a UN ten at checkpoint 512 east of Balooza, was attended by an Israeli officers’ team headed by Gen. Herzl Shafir and an Egyptian team headed by Gen. Taha El Maghdoub. Maghdoub and Shafir were both members of their respective delegations at the Geneva meeting. The differences over the location of the Egyptian post were resolved when both sides agreed that the position indicated on the American map was the correct one.
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