CAIRO: President Anwar Sadat proclaimed today [March 7] the end of the ceasefire with Israel and told his countrymen that they have the absolute support of the Soviet Union. ...President Sadat disclosed he had made a secret two-day trip to Moscow last week to meet with President Podgorny and Premier Alexei Kosygin in top-level Kremlin discussions. The Soviet Union supports our rights absolutely and positively, Sadat said in reporting his Moscow tour. He said UAR did not plan to extend the ceasefire with Israel which expires tonight but it would not stop political talks.

President Sadat said that he went to Moscow on a secret visit on March 1. He declared: “While feeling esteem for the appeal of the UN Secretary-General regarding moderation and extension in any exchange of fire, we wish to ... tell the whole world that it is not possible for us to continue renewing the ceasefire. [We] also cannot continue to refrain from opening fire as we have done in the past 30 days. That is why I am announcing to you and the ... world that we can no longer consider ourselves bound by the ceasefire or by an extension of any exchange of fire.”

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2021