The first snag has developed in implementing the terms of the second Israeli-Egyptian agreement in Sinai. A dispute over the location of the Egyptian advance warning surveillance station in the Gidi pass region prevented the scheduled arrival there today of 200 Egyptian technicians and workers who will build the electronic listening post.
Israeli and Egyptian officers will meet later this week in the United Nations buffer zone to try to settle the dispute over the location of the Egyptian station. Attempts by UN officials to do so failed and the arrival of the 17-truck convoy of Egyptian personnel was postponed until agreement is reached. The dispute arose from discrepancies in the maps of the area.
The Israeli and Egyptian maps each show a different site for the location of the surveillance station on a ridge south of the Gidi Pass road. The American map shows still another site. Israeli circles are also upset by Egypt’s insistence that it needs an area of six square kilometers for its radar post. The Israelis say there is no reason for so large a stretch of land unless the Egyptian intention is to establish an enclave that could be used for military purposes against Israel should hostilities break out. It was learned, meanwhile, that Israeli forces will withdraw within the next two weeks from some 60 square kilometers south west of the Mitle Pass, adjacent to the UN buffer zone.
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