Egypt looks ahead

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33381, 13 November 1973, Page 17

Egypt looks ahead

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) CAIRO, November 12. Tough negotiations between Egypt and Israel are expected today, when senior officers from both sides discuss priorities for implementing the cease-fire agreement they signed yesterday. Major-General Mohammed Abdel Ghany Al Gamazi, Egypt’s Deputy Chief of Staff, and his Israeli counterpart, General Aharon Yariv, will again meet at Kilometre 101, on the Suez-Cairo road, where they signed the sixpoint plan to stabilise the cease-fire. President Sadat is continuing his intensive political consultations on the situation, and the Minister of War (General Ahmed Ismail), in a message to the armed forces, has called on. his men to remain alert for any Israeli military action. General Ismail, who is also commander of the armed forces, told his troops: “I remind you, as we start procedures for achieving a just peace from a position of

strength, that we must be vigilant, and prepare ourselves to confront any military action by the enemy. “We must be prepared for action at any time, and in any circumstances, if the other side fails to implement the agreement.” Egypt is also turning her attention to preparations for long-term reconstruction along the Suez Canal and in Sinai when the Israeli forces finally withdraw from Egyptian territory occupied in the 1967 six-day war. The Minister of Reconstruction (Mr Osman Ahmed Osman) is due to visit Ismailia, in the central sector of the Suez front, to choose a site for his new Ministry, which will prepare blueprints for this work. Mr Osman, who played an important role in the construction of the Aswan Dam, has said that the plans will include a network of roads to Sinai, and the digging of tunnels to link the east and west bank of the canal. They would be part of the project to rehabilitate the area in the next 20 years. Egyptian and foreign experts will be invited to contribute to the scheme once the plans are completed. Egypt would like her wounded, mostly civilians and numbering about 2000, moved out of Suez, and she also wants to ensure the continuous flow of medicines and other supplies, the disengagement of forces, a return to the controversial October 22 cease-fire lines, and an exchange of wounded prisoners of war. President Sadat yesterday conferred with the Soviet Union Ambassador in Cairo (Mr Vladimir Vinogradov), and later briefed the Palestine commando leader, Mr

Yasser Arafat, on the latest developments. Mr Arafat later left Cairo for Moscow. The Arab League Secretariat will invite Arab Foreign Ministers to a meeting in Cairo soon, to prepare for an Arab summit conference in Algiers, according to the authoritative Cairo newspaper, “Al Ahram.” It gives no firm date for the meeting, but says that this will be decided shortly after the next session of the Organisation of African Unity Ministerial Council, which begins on Monday of next week.