Israel Ambassador Yosef Tekoah said yesterday that “the most striking and significant point” in a letter from Egypt to Secretary General U Thant accusing Israel of widened aggression was that the letter “does not deny that Soviet pilots have begun flying combat missions in Egyptian airplanes.” The envoy made the comment in a statement to the press after the Egyptian representative had submitted the letter and asked that it be circulated as a UN document. Mr. Tekoah added that “no smoke screen by the Egyptian representative can conceal the gravity and danger of this escalation of Cairo’s ‘war of attrition’ against Israel.” He added that “only an immediate and determined international reaction to the Soviet-Egyptian aggressive plot can arrest this new alarming deterioration of the situation.”
On Friday, a United Nations spokesman said that Soviet Ambassador Yakov Malik had denied, in an interview with Mr. Thant, “published reports” dealing with the presence of Soviet airmen in Egypt. The denial and the UN action circulating it were immediately attacked by Ambassador Tekoah. “Ambassador Malik’s vague denials are contrary to the known facts,” Mr. Tekoah declared. “There is clear evidence in the hands of various governments confirming the new Soviet involvement in the Middle East conflict. It is regrettable that the United Nations spokesman should give currency to Soviet statements aimed at paralyzing the justified international outcry against the USSR’s dangerous actions.” In reporting Mr. Malik’s denial to UN correspondents, the spokesman did not elaborate on the phrase “published reports” or indicate whether the denial was any more specific than that.
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