From the blue of the Mediterranean across the arid desert wasteland to the Gulf of Aqaba armed U.A.R. and Israeli soldiers continue their face-to-face confrontation. No incidents were reported along the 165-mile long frontier in the nearly 48 hours since the U.N. Emergency Force pulled out of its frontline buffer positions. Israel, having completed partial mobilisation of its armed forces – the biggest since the 1956 Sinai battle – is settling back for what could be a long period of waiting. Authoritative Israeli circles vowed that if trouble started it would have to come from the Arab side. But if it comes they are saying, “we can take care of ourselves, with or without U.N. help.” The military build-up in the area has hit high point on the eve of United Nations Secretary-General U Thant’s visit to Cairo on Monday [May 22] for an on-the-spot look at the situation with full mobilisation, including the call-up of reservists in U.A.R. U Thant who is under severe pressures from the Western countries to keep some kind of peace-keeping machinery in the Middle East will have tough-going-talks with President Nasser who is expected to stick to his gun on his decision terminating the presence of the United Nations Expeditionary Force on the U.A.R. side and the Gaza strip. U Thant has already called attention to the gravity of the Middle East situation and his talks in Cairo will concentrate on measures for limiting tensions along Arab-Israeli frontiers. Western observers in Cairo believe Israel was a bit taken aback at the speed with which the U.A.R. armed forces geared themselves to operational preparedness in Sinai and its demand for complete withdrawal of the UNEF. Israeli leaders who were earlier bellicose about the punitive attack on Syria are now less vocal, they noted. Meanwhile, the U.A.R. has turned down the move by some Arab countries to call a meeting of the Arab League Defence Council to review the Middle East situation.
