A Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday that South Africa was manufacturing Israel’s Uzi submachinegun under a sublicense agreement out denied all other allegations of Israeli military, political and economic cooperation with the Republic of South Africa. The allegations were contained in a New York Times dispatch by correspondent Cyrus Sulzberger writing from Johannesburg. The spokesman denounced as “lies” Sulzberger’s allegation that Israel gave South Africa the plans for the Mirage “Atar” jet engine which it obtained illegally from a Swiss engineer. Alfred Frauenknecht in 1968. Frauenknecht was sentenced in Lausanne last month to 4 1/2 years’ imprisonment for selling the engine plans to Israeli agents. The spokesman conceded that South Africa was making the Uzi but said Israel was powerless to prevent it. He said a Belgian firm licensed to produce the weapon in 1955 had in turn sublicensed it to a South African firm. When this came to light, Israel inserted a clause in all subsequent licensing agreements forbidding sublicense to third parties without Israel’s permission, the Ministry spokesman said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
