Egypt awaits explanation

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32977, 25 July 1972, Page 13

Egypt awaits explanation

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright)

CAIRO, July 24.

President Sadat is expected to explain to the nation today his future course of action, after his order ending the Soviet Union’s military presence in Egypt.

National unity is the sole item on the agenda of the three-day congress of the

Arab Socialist Union, the country’s only political organisation, at which Mr Sadat is expected to disclose the differences with the Soviet Union that led to his decision. The Russian military men in Egypt continued to fly home yesterday, as Cairo celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the revolution that overthrew the monarchy.

The national unity issue has become important after last night’s disclosure of the seizure of pamphlets seeking to disturb relations between Moslems and Christians in Egypt. According to the Minister of Information (Dr Abdel Kader Hatem) the pamphlets were posted from the United States to a number of people, with the aim of creating dissension.

In his speech today, Mr Sadat may refer to a Libyan proposal for full union between Egypt and Libya, aimed at “putting the resources of the Arab nations at the disposal of the battle against Israel.” President Gadaffi, of Libya, said yesterday that the proposal was made to Mr Sadat in February, and the Egyptian leader asked for time—until the end of this month—in which to study it.

‘No crisis’

In his first public speech since the Libyan Government reshuffle last Week, Colonel Gadaffi flatly denied reports circulating abroad that there had been a leadership crisis in the country.

The colonel’s 90-minute radio speech, in which he extolled the devotion of Colonel Nasser, the late Egyptian leader, to “positive neutrality,” was made when he opened a camp for “Nasser volunteers” at Misratah, east of Tripoli. Colonel Gadaffi, who has frequently made clear his hostility to treaty links be-

tween Arab States and the Soviet Union, made no reference to Mr Sadat’s action in ordering Russian military advisers out of Egypt, but he did speak frankly of Libyan differences with Egypt and Syria, her partners in the Federation of Arab Republics, about their strategy for the “war of liberation” against Israel.

“In spite of Libya's confidence in the front-line States, particularly Egypt and Syria, we differ with them about the plan of the battle, if there is to be a battle; we differ about the manner in which the battle should be fought,” Colonel Gadaffi said.

“We differ with them on the method of liberation in general. To put it briefly, Libya is not a party to the

plan of the battle although it is a party as regards the war material, the fuel, and other needs of the battle.

“To this very day, Libya has no knowledge of the battle plan, of how the battle will be waged, of which territory the Arab armies will enter, and of whether or not there will be a battle.”

Libya recognised no Middle East crisis, he said, but only the problem of Palestine. He decried those Arabs who justified their inaction against Israel by saying that they lacked weapons. “If I had no aircraft, I would fight with tanks,” he said. “If I had no tanks, I would fight with rifles. If there were no rifles, I would use the. knife. If there were no knives, I would use stones.” He called on the Arab world’s various Nasserite movements to meet in Libya to create “a single Arab body to work for the nation’s unity from the Atlantic to the Gulf.” Colonel Gadaffi went on to say that the spheres of influence of Great Powers, against which the Arab nations had fought so bitterly under President Nasser, were again being applied in certain Arab regions. “Instead of Arab-Russian treaties preparations are being made for Arab-American treaties,” he said. “The result is the loss of Arab independence, and the return of the Arab people to Great Power spheres of influence.” Colonel Gadaffi, who has consistently preached a philosphy of complete Arab independence from political attachments with either the Communists or the West, also said: “We witness the great colonialist forces of both East and West threatening the camp of positive neutralism and peaceful co-existence.”