The State Department reaffirmed today U.S. opposition to American or Soviet participation in any United Nations peace-keeping force in the Middle East. Department spokesman George Vest said “Our position is that it is better for neither the U.S. nor the Soviet Union to be part of UNEF,” the United Nations Emergency Force.
Vest was commenting on a report from London today quoting usually reliable Soviet sources there as saying that Moscow was not opposed to the creation of demilitarized zones in the Sinai and on the Golan Heights but would insist that Soviet troops be included in the peace-keeping force that takes up positions in those zones. Vest said the U.S. continues to favor a peace-keeping force composed of nations acceptable to both sides in the Mideast dispute.
SOVIET OFFICERS AT KILOMETER 101
Meanwhile, Soviet officers were seen for the first time with a UN cease-fire observers team at the Kilometer 101 checkpoint on the Suez-Cairo road, an Israeli radio correspondent reported today. He said a Russian captain and a major, wearing UN uniforms, were identified by other UN officers. They stood apart from the other observers and did not converse with them, the correspondent said. Last week, 28 American officers arrived in Israel to-join the observer teams on the Israeli side of the cease-fire lines.
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