Secretary General Kurt Waldheim has sent firm instructions to the United Nations peace-keeping forces in the Middle East to remain in their positions and perform their duties as usual regardless of Egypt’s announcement Tuesday that it would not agree to extend the mandate of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) in Sinai after it expires next Thursday, July 24.
The Egyptian move has created some uncertainty among the officers and men of the multi-national units that have been overseeing the disengagement agreements that followed the October 1973 Yom Kippur War. UNEF operates on the Sinai front between Israeli and Egyptian lines. The Golan Heights are manned by the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which patrols the buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces.
Although it is the fate of UNEF that is in immediate doubt, there have been no signs of nervousness among the six battalions–including one each from Sweden and Finland–in Sinai. They are continuing their routine tasks of manning the buffer zone and regularly inspecting the limited forces zones and regularly inspecting the limited forces zones where Israel and Egypt are required to restrict their manpower and weapons.
SYRIANS JEER UN OFFICERS
Uneasiness has been noticed, however, at UNDOF whose mandate does not expire for another three months. The Egyptian announcement coincided with the withdrawal of Peruvian units which had been manning the Israeli side of the disengagement lines. They are due to leave the Middle East Friday; their commanding general has already departed and an Austrian contingent, which has been manning the Syrian side of the lines, has had to thin out its forces in order to replace the Peruvians on the Israeli side.
The Peruvians cancelled a farewell party on the Golan Heights last night and UNDOF officers went to Damascus instead to confer on their future status. They cabled Waldheim for instructions and received a prompt reply that there were no changes and all remains as before. But officers who returned from Damascus today reported that the that the atmosphere had changed there. They said the UN officers were jeered at and were regarded by the populace as a very temporary phenomenon.
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