Reagan to Announce ‘early Next Week’ His Decision on the F-16s

President Reagan will announce “early next week” his decision on whether to lift the suspension of delivery of F-16 fighter bombers to Israel, the State Department announced today.

Until he announces his decision, “the President has withheld delivery of all sophisticated aircraft,” to Israel, including two F-15 jets that were due to leave the McDonnell-Douglas Corp. plant in St. Louis today, Department deputy spokesman Alan Romberg said.

Romberg said he did not know whether the President’s decision would be announced in California where Reagan is vacationing or at the State Department. But until then, all questions on the issue will be dealt with only by the State Department.

Reagan’s decision will include the four F-16s the U.S. embargoed after Israel destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor June 7 and the six delayed after Israel’s July 17 raid on terrorist headquarters in Beirut. It would also cover four more F-16s expected to be released by the General-Dynamics Corp. plant at Fort Worth, Texas this Friday.

Romberg denied that suspending delivery of the two F-15s, the first of 15 scheduled to be delivered to Israel, was a broadening of the original suspension order. He said it was based on the same “rationale” that applied when Secretary of State Alexander Haig announced the suspension of the delivery of the 10 F-16s while attending the economic summit in Ottawa.

He noted that in Ottawa, Haig said the planes were being held up because to deliver them would be adding a “highly visible” piece of military equipment to a “volatile” region. Romberg conceded that in Ottawa, Haig inferred the Reagan Administration would make a decision before the F-15s were due for delivery.

DENIES BREACH OF CONTRACT CHARGE

Romberg denied the embargo was a “breach of contract” as Israel has charged. He said the President has the authority to hold up delivery. But Romberg stressed that in announcing the suspension of delivery in Ottawa, the U.S. did not ask Israel to do anything to ensure resumption of delivery nor did it base the suspension on any particular incident beyond the general situation in the Mideast at the time.

Romberg said that he did not know whether Reagan’s announcement will include a determination whether Israel violated its arms agreement with the U.S. by using American made weapons to destroy the Iraqi reactor. When delivery of the first four F-16s was suspended, the U.S. announced that the Administration would study whether Israel had acted in self-defense as it claimed. After the six other planes were added to the suspension, Haig said the study has been largely completed. But no conclusions have been made

public up till now. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has grounded all F-16s following the crash of one of the planes in Utah last week in which the pilot was killed. Reportedly, the Pentagon is studying problems with the F-16s flight control computers. A Pentagon spokesman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency yesterday that if the planes couldn’t fly, they couldn’t be delivered. The planes being delivered to Israel are flown from the factory to the Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire from where they are flown in a one-stop flight to Israel.