Richardson Says Soviet Pilots in Egypt Could Lead to U.S. Reappraisal of Jets to Israel

Under-Secretary of State Elliot L. Richardson indicated today that the confirmation of the participation of Soviet pilots on Egypt’s behalf could be a sufficient unbalancing of the Middle East military situation for the United States to reconsider its admittedly temporary decision against additional jet sales to Israel. Although he at first told a news conference here that the new development “requires assessment and careful examination.” Mr. Richardson said a few moments later that “on the face of it, it certainly has had an effect” on what the Nixon Administration calls the current military balance. “The increased degree of (Soviet) engagement gives reason for added concern by the United States,” he added, observing that now there are “Soviet personnel in an operational capacity” in the Mideast. He did not elaborate on the development, saying it would not be “useful or desirable for me to go into specifics.”

Mr. Richardson held his brief news conference immediately after addressing the Second National Convocation on the Challenge of Building Peace, held in the New York Hilton Hotel by the Fund for Peace, a three-year-old educational corporation designed to “develop a national constituency for peace.” In that speech he cautioned the Soviet Union that the United States would “take notice and react” to its military involvement in the Middle East. But while warning Moscow against “stirring up a wider conflict” in the region, he indicated that the U.S. eschewed the use of its power there. “Where persuasion fails, coercion is not an acceptable option,” Mr. Richardson said.

He cited no specific instance of Soviet military involvement in the Mideast, including today’s reports that Russian pilots are flying missions over Egypt. He said “The Soviet Union should realize that any immediate gains it might make in attempting to take advantage of the troubled Middle East situation are far outweighed by the danger of stirring up a wider conflict.” He added, “When in such an area one of us–in this case the USSR–involves itself militarily, it is inevitable that the other will take notice and react.” He said that under the Nixon Administration, the U.S. is “being more exact in the delineation of those U.S. interests which, when threatened, must call for response.” The Soviet speaker at the Convocation, Mikhail D. Millonshchikov. Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Republic and Vice President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, referred only briefly to the Mideast. He said the situation there was getting “more tense.” Two top Soviet diplomats scheduled to appear did not attend the Convocation. Yakov Malik, Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations, was reported ill, and the Soviet Ambassador to Washington, Anatoly F. Dobrynin, had been recalled to Moscow.