State Department sources here today said they place no credence whatever in reports from Cairo, alleging that an agreement had been made between Israel and the United States for the construction of an American naval base, for the U.S. Sixth Fleet, at Israel’s port of Ashdod.
The State Department sources said the Cairo report was “counter-propaganda” in an effort to divert world public opinion.from an earlier report to the effect that the United Arab Republic intends to enter an agreement with the Soviet Union, permitting the USSR to establish a Russian naval base on the Egyptian coast along the Mediterranean.
Another report from Cairo today said Egyptian President Nasser ratified the sentences imposed by a court last July on 11 persons convicted of alleged espionage for Israel. Among the 11, four were sentenced to death.
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