Maj. Gen. E.L.M. Burns, Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, left Cairo today for the Gaza strip to continue discussions with the Israelis and Egyptians on measures designed to ease tension in the border area it was reported here today from the Egyptian capital.
The dispatches said that after an hour of discussions with high Egyptian officials in Cairo, Gen. Burns said that Egypt had accepted “with reservations” his four-point program. However, Col. Salah Gohar, head of the Egyptian War Ministry’s Palestine Department, said that Egypt had refused to agree to a local commanders’ agreement between the two sides, but had accepted Gen. Burns’ suggestions for joint UN-Israel-Egyptian border patrols, limiting border units to regular troops and erecting barbed wire barricades along the border.
Gen. Burns also told newspapermen in Cairo that he was hopeful that he could persuade Israel to agree to joint patrols, the major point over which Israel has baulked. The Israelis maintain, Gen. Burns said, that considerations of national sovereignty forbid the entry of foreign troops into Israel territory.
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