Sadat reshuffles Govt for fifth time

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34107, 20 March 1976, Page 15

Sadat reshuffles Govt for fifth time

(N Z.P A.-RcuteT) ; I CAIRO, March 19. 1 The Egyptian Prime Minister (Mr Mamdouh' Salem) is today expected to announce ai (new Cabinet designed to tackle the problems of (an ailing economy, informed sources in Cairo Mr Salem, who has been! asked by President Anwar Sadat to form a new admin-, (istration, told reporters last! night it would concentrate! on achieving economic and administrative stability. The new Cabinet, the sixth since President Sadat came to power in 1970, replaces the 35-member Cabinet formed by Mr Salem last April. It was expected to introduce strict austerity measures and far reaching reforms in an effort to improve the economic Situation. Egypt, plagued bv huge debts, had a trade deficit of more than £2ooom last year. Informed sources said Mr|

-Salem had completed his (new line-up and would submit the list to President Sadat for final approval. They expected key ministers to retain their posts, including the Foreign Affairs Minister (Mr Ismail Fahmt) the War Minister (Mr Mohammed Abdel-Ghani Gamassi), the Economic Co-oper-ation Minister (Mr Mohammed Zaki Shafii) and the I Finance Minister (Mr Ahmed (Abu-Ismail). Foreign Ministers from 20 • Arab countries have ended a three-day series of closeddoor meetings at Cairo without any sign of headway in healing inter-Arab political rifts. The ministers urged indi- - viduai countries to intensify bilateral contacts to solve disputes. Observers said that no statement was issued on possible easing of tensions. It was a regular twice yearly meeting for the ministers. Delegates from Islamic states have decided to call for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security ‘ Council to consider the troubled situation in Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied (West Bank of Jordan.

>1 The Pakistani Ambassador ■ (Mr Iqbal Akhund), chairman of the Islamic Group's 13-member Committee on Jerusalem, said the request was being telephoned to the Security Council President (Mr Thomas Boya). A written request would also ■ be sent, to him, signed by a number of United Nations ambassadors. The Jerusalem Committee iiof the 42-nation Islamic Group spent more than two' 1 hours discussing the situi ation in t e Israeli occupied West Bank, the scene Of repeated Arab riots and demonstrations during the last ( i three weeks. They began as a protest! ■ against a recent decision by, an Israeli magistrate who ■ dismissed charges against a group of Jews arrested for i conducting prayers on the Temple Mount in the old t city of Jerusalem, captured ■ from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war. The area is revered by I Jews as the site of the tern- ? pies destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 A.D., t and by Moslems as the location of two Islamic shrines, lithe Al-Aqsa mosque and the (Dome of the Rock.