A new commander of the United Nations Emergency Force was appointed here this weekend by Secretary General U Thant. The new UNEF chief, who is here today for consultations prior to assuming his new post, is Maj. Gen. Syseno Sarmento, of Brazil. He will succeed another Brazilian officer, Maj. Gen. Carlos Flores Paiva Chaves, who retired recently because of illness.
The United Nations Emergency Force, created by the General Assembly in 1956, stands on guard over the Israeli-Egyptian borders, patroling the Egyptian-jurisdiction side of the Gaza Strip frontier and watching over Israel’s freedom of shipping in the Gulf of Akaba from a post at Sharm el-Sheikh, in the Sinai Desert.
The cost for the maintenance and operation of UNEF is one of the main items of discord between many members of the United Nations and the Soviet Union, causing the present financial crisis of the UN. The USSR has consistently refused to pay its share of the annual special assessments for UNEF as well as for the UN forces in the Congo.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
