ABSTRACT
The foreign secretary also stated that measures would be undertaken to insure the neutralization of the Rhodesian Air Force. Taken together, these moves were enough to enable the Patriotic Front to enter into a partial ceasefire agreement. In a conference characterized by continued Salisbury cooperation with the British, the Patriotic Front's decision to defer discussion on the assembly points and related issues and to participate in what, in reality, was a "hyped up" announcement of an incomplete accord, was a signal act of cooperation. The Patriotic Front would sit on the commission, which would have the authority to decide when the ceasefire had become sufficiently effective to allow elections to be held, a period likely to last several months, not the eight to ten weeks the British envisaged for the entire transitional period. The United States had been broadly and publicly supportive of the British during the conference.
