The Soviet Union recently sent Egypt seven specially equipped MIG-23 jets equipped with the most sophisticated filming apparatus and designed for intelligence flights, according to a diplomat of a country friendly to Egypt quoted by Yediot Achronot. These, it was said, may be the MIG-23s that Egypt has claimed are being flown by Egyptian pilots.
The new jet deliveries coincide with the Cairo visit of the Soviet Defense Minister, Marshal Andrei Grechko, and the upcoming Moscow visit of President Nixon. Observers said the Kremlin could be reminding the world, busy with the problems of Vietnam, that the Middle East is still a big issue.
Additionally, Egypt appears to be getting new, sophisticated Russian missile boats, presumably in response to the new Israeli flotilla of French Saar boats equipped with the Israeli Gabriel missile. Observers said the Russian boats may be of the modernized Ossa type. It was recently reported that the Russians have been building docks and a speedier missile boat named “Ninutchka” in Leningrad, which is on the Gulf of Finland.
A Moroccan association for Muslim solidarity has recently been formed in Rabat to oppose Zionism, Communism, imperialism and colonialism. The association, comprising secondary school and university students, stated that the Muslim world is strong enough to “face the challenge hurled at it” by these four forces.
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