Sadat tries to cool fears

Press, 19 June 1980, Page 7

Sadat tries to cool fears

NZPA-Reuter Washington President Anwar Sadat said yesterday that Egypt’s decision to reimpose martial law along its desert border with Libya was just a precautionary measure. Senior Egyptian soldiers also tried to cool fears of an imminent conflict. Speaking in the city of Alexandria, President Sadat told reporters the action had not been provoked by border incidents but was a response to remarks by 7 the Libyan ‘leader. Colonel Muammar Gadaffi. I “He has threatened that he will direct all Libyan forces against Egypt . . . (This does not concern us. IWe have just imposed precautionary measures,” he I added. | Western diplomats said I Egvptian-Libyan tension ; could pose an embarrass.ment for the United States when it sends a squadron of IF4 jets to Egypt in July for i three months of joint exercises with the Egyptian Air Force. Artis Mansour, a journalist whose column in “October” magazine often reflects President Sadat’s views, wrote last week that the exercises ; would take place in the ; Western Desert. “Gadaffi will shout louder when squadrons of American ; and Egyptian planes carry lout the exercises . . . Colo- ] nel Gadaffi will imagine this ’is a preparation for an attack .on Libya,” Mansour I wrote.