RUSSIA AND EGYPT REACH AGREEMENT

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31729, 12 July 1968, Page 11

RUSSIA AND EGYPT REACH AGREEMENT

WZ.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) CAIRO, July 10. The Soviet Union and the United Arab Republic today announced they had reached agreement on joint measures aimed at restoring peace in the Middle East, the Middle East News Agency reported.

A communique issued at the end of President Nasser’s seven-day visit to Moscow said the nations had reaffirmed that the Middle East problem should be solved on the basis of the Security Council resolution of November 22 last year, the agency said.

They declared that the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the positions held before the June war and Israel’s execution of all the provisions of the Security Council resolution was a -necessary condition for the restoration of peace.

President Nasser today flew to Jugoslavia, leaving General Abdel Moneim Riad, Chief of the General Staff of the Egyptian Army, in the Soviet capital, but an Egyptian Embassy spokesman in Moscow refused to comment on reports that the general would be signing a new agreement on the supply of Soviet arms to Egypt. Before leaving Moscow, President Nasser had a final meeting, the fifth to be officially reported, with the Communist Party chief, Leonid Brezhnev, the Prime Minister, Alexei Kosygin, and President Nikolai Podgorny. A statement by the Tass News Agency said they discussed topics of mutual interest in “an atmosphere of friendship and cordiality.”

Observers said there appeared to have been some stiff negotiating, with the Kremlin leaders insisting that time was on the side of the Arabs in the 'Middle East crisis and President Nasser expressing anxiety that the world might become used to Israel’s new borders.

In Brioni, Jugoslavia, President Nasser said that the Arab nations had enough

moral and material forces to gain a victorious end to the Middle East struggle. The Egyptian leader, speaking at a banquet given by President Josip Tito on the eve of talks between the two leaders said the Arab nations would not accept any solution which would not secure the legitimate rights of the people of Palestine. He warned that those who thought only of Egypt's military defeat last year were making a big mistake which would cost them dearly. President Nasser said his country had confirmed its readiness to form a political settlement of the Middle East crisis by accepting the United Nations resolution of last November.