Scrapbook 2: Jul 1962 — Egypt
President Nasser (IN DARK SUIT) visiting the base to watch the launchings. In the background was a Victor rocket, the second to be fired.
NEGEV EXERCISES
From Our Own Correspondent TEL AVIV, Monday.
Israel has not asked the West for missiles to offset Egypt’s rockets, according to Tel Aviv reports. But diplomats are believed to be considering a discreet review of the Middle East arms situation.
The pointed negative attitude of the United States in granting operational missiles to smaller nations and the consequent difficulties Israel is bound to meet when applying for missiles is being stressed in Tel Aviv.
Gen. Meir Amit, Army Intelligence Chief said to-day that Israel had the names of a considerable number of foreign experts who developed the Egyptian rocket and assembled it mainly from imported parts. Israeli intelligence believes the Egyptian picture is exaggerated.
Meanwhile Israel is staging what is considered to be her most important artillery exercises this year in the Negev. Armour and infantry are taking part.
A Conqueror rocket, one of Egypt’s first, soaring from its launching site at a base in the Western Desert at the week-end, when four rockets were fired.
CAIRO (UPI)—Israel remains the United Arab Republic’s No. 1 enemy as this nation enters the second decade of President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s revolution.
Nasser, then an army lieutenant colonel, led a dozen other young officers in a revolt against the corrupt civil government of King Farouk 10 years ago Tuesday, sending the confused and luxury-sated king into European exile.
Egyptians are celebrating the anniversary with a week of parades, fireworks, and ceremonies. Peasants in their long striped galabiyahs and headdresses have been crowding Nasser’s capital for many days.
But the high point of the celebration came two days before the anniversary date on an Egyptian missile test site 50 miles from Cairo, a 20th Century establishment less than an hour’s drive from the Pyramids.
There the U.A.R. entered the space age, in the presence of Nasser and the foreign press.
It fired four single-stage rockets and Nasser announced that they were now “in large-scale production—otherwise we couldn’t have spared the four for testing.”
It was clear from his other remarks how closely Egypt’s unfinished war with Israel is linked with the rockets and other military developments.
“The only military significance is the range they reach,” Nasser told newsmen. Asked their exact range, he said: “A little south of Beirut”—a reference to Israel, which lies to the south of Lebanon.
The rocket have a range of from 235 to 372 miles. Tel Aviv is 250 airline miles from Cairo.
Although Nasser quarrels with some of his Arab neighbors, their enmity toward Israel is one thing all agree on. With the French Algerian war at an end, observers believe new efforts will be made to concentrate attention on the Israel issue.
These other developments were in the forefront as the U.A.R. marked 10 years under Nasser:
—The moves toward creation of a socialist state. More than $840 million worth of private property has been nationalized since the last anniversary.
—The change in approach to Arab unity. From dreams of one united Arab state, the emphasis now seems to be aiming for eventual but gradual federation.
Syria’s withdrawal last September from the 3½-year-old union under Nasser has had serious repercussions around the Middle East. But it has not been the political disaster to Nasser’s prestige that some observers predicted.
Syria has escaped the stringent socialist measures Nasser had planned for it, but the price has been political chaos. Cairo papers have been giving daily attention to reports of Syrian government attempts to crush pro-union elements.
CAIRO, Sunday.
REACTION throughout the Arab world to-day shows that Egyptian prestige has soared after yesterday’s successful demonstration of rocket firing. Commentators in most Arab capitals have been quick to point out that Israel is within the range claimed for the Egyptian rockets.
President Nasser has said the rockets are now in mass production in Egypt. Successful tests were held 14 months ago.
Yesterday’s firing of four rockets in the Western Desert was watched by President Nasser, Government Ministers, foreign officials and diplomats. It was a dramatic prelude for the 10th anniversary of the revolution that overthrew King Farouk.
400 MILE RANGE
“Historical achievement”
President Nasser toured laboratories and factories where the rockets were built before watching the firing. Four one-stage rockets were launched.
Two were Conquerors, 40ft missiles with a range of nearly 400 miles. The others were smaller, Victors, with a range of about 250 miles.
President Nasser later spoke to journalists who watched the firing from a six-mile distance. He indicated that work was taking place on rockets with greater ranges.
Mr. Hassouna, Arab League Secretary-General, discribed the firings as “a decisive historical achievement in evolution and a measure for consolidating Arab strength and ensuring the safety and advancement of the Arab world.”
£10m nuclear scheme
Mr. Sharabassy, Public Works Minister, announced last night that £10 million has been set aside for the building of Egypt’s first nuclear power plant.