A Yugoslav motorized contingent of the United Nations Emergency Force was moving today forward into positions in the Sinai Peninsula previously held by Israeli troops as the latter moved back to a point approximately 30 miles from their furthest penetration.
That was announced here in a report from the UNEF commander’s headquarters in Cairo. The commander, Maj. Gen. E. L. M. Burns, stated that the Yugoslav column includes 20 armored cars as well as other light armaments.
Meanwhile, Israel has undertaken a three-way move to try to clarify the relationship between its promised withdrawals from Egyptian territory and UNEF. Here, Israel’s deputy permanent chairman Mordecai Kidron is in contact with Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold who is virtually, although not by title, commander-in-chief of UNEF.
In Washington, Ambassador Abba Eban conferred with several high echelon members of the State Department on the same issue. Later this week there will be a conference, probably in Tel Aviv, between Gen Burns and Gen. Moshe Dayan, chief of staff of the Israel Army.
Israeli circles here feel that both Washington and the UN secretariat have indulged in “calculated vagueness” regarding the relationship between Israel’s promised with drawl and the stationing of UNEF troops. Israel has not yet received assurances that Egypt will be forbidden to build up massive troop concentrations behind the UNEF lines.
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