United Nations Secretary-General U Thant was expected to return here from Cairo late this evening after his talks with Egyptian President Nasser in an effort to alleviate the tense situation which developed between Egypt and Israel following the withdrawal of the U.N. Emergency Forces from the Gaza Strip and Egyptian territory and the mining by Egypt of the entrance to the Gulf of Akaba with a view to blockading any shipping to and from the Israeli port of Eilat.
Originally, the Secretary-General’s schedule provided for his return from Cairo tomorrow. No explanation for his early return was given today at U.N. headquarters. It was indicated that he will make a written report to the members of the Security Council on his talk with Nasser. A date for a further meeting of the Council will be fixed after Mr. Thant’s consultations here.
From Cairo it was reported today that Nasser told Mr. Thant that Egypt is “ready to cooperate” with the U.N. peace-keeping objectives through the establishment of a U.N. Egyptian-Israel Mixed Armistice Commission providing Israel accepts the new status quo and refrains from using the Gulf of Akaba. (Israelis were inclined to regard United Nations Secretary-General U Thant’s mission to Cairo as a failure. Observers in Israel had been increasingly skeptical of Mr. Thant’s ability to bring Nasser into line ever since the U.N. official destroyed his own bargaining base by announcing he would yield to Nasser’s demand to remove the United Nations Emergency Force from Sharm-el-Sheikh and the Israeli-Egyptian border even before Nasser formally made the demand.)
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