State Dep’t Mum on Skyhawks to Israel, Sadat’s Interview, Bergus’ Warning

The State Department declined today to discuss a report that the Nixon administration will sell Israel limited quantities of additional A-4 Skyhawk planes late next year to offset the Soviet arms build-up in Egypt. Asked by newsmen to confirm the report which appeared in today’s Washington Post, State Department spokesman Charles Bray said. “It is our policy not to discuss reports of arms to Israel and I do not choose to deviate from that policy.” Bray also declined to comment on all other questions relating to the Middle East.

According to Post staff writer Michael Getler, the US commitment on Skyhawks was made earlier this year and was said to provide for delivery of 12-18 of the aircraft late in 1972. The Post said there were indications that a second agreement for a similar number of Skyhawks may be near. Knowledgable sources here told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that the reported agreement on Skyhawks represented no change in policy by the Nixon administration which is still withholding Phantoms from Israel. They said there was never an embargo on the delivery of Skyhawks, a subsonic fighter plane without the speed, range or bomb capacity of the supersonic Phantoms.

For the second consecutive day, the State Department refused to comment on statements by President Anwar Sadat of Egypt published in an interview in Newsweek magazine this week. Sadat was quoted as saying that the Nixon administration misled him into believing that it would extract major negotiating concessions from Israel which never materialized. Sadat also reportedly claimed that at a meeting in Cairo last July with Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Joseph J. Sisco, the latter drew a hypothetical line on a map indicating what he thought should be the line of Israeli withdrawal from the Suez Canal in order to reach an interim agreement to reopen the waterway.

Asked today if he was ready to comment on the Newsweek interview, Bray replied, “No, I am not.” He said, “We are still taking a look at the text.” Bray also refused to comment today on a report by syndicated columnist Jack Anderson that the US diplomatic representative in Cairo, Donald Bergus, has cautioned the State Department to “take seriously” Sadat’s recent threats to renew warfare against Israel. Asked if any communication had been received from Bergus, Bray replied. “I am not speaking to that, one way or another.”