President Reagan has suspended indefinitely the delivery of cluster bomb ammunition to Israel. State Department spokesman Dean Fischer, in announcing the ban, stressed that this was a policy decision by Reagan and not a legal determination of whether Israel had violated a secret agreement with the U.S. by using cluster bombs in Lebanon.
“No further action is contemplated at this time,” Fischer said. He said the President acted after he sent a letter to Congress yesterday on Israel’s use of cluster bombs which supplemented the letter sent Congress on July 16 on the use of American-made weapons by Israel in Lebanon.
In both cases, the letters are classified because of, as Fischer explained, the “delicate state” of the negotiations now going on over Lebanon. Both letters apparently declare that there are grounds to believe Israel violated its agreements with the U.S. not to use American-made weapons except for defensive purposes. Either Congress or the President could then determine that a legal violation had accurred and cut off arms for Israel.
Reagan last week suspended delivery of cluster bomb ammunition pending a review. Fischer said the decision today, which he stressed repeatedly was a policy decision, was based on the Israeli response to U.S. requests for information on its use of cluster bombs as well as information from a variety of sources.
It was unclear what arms were actually covered by the suspension. Last week the Administration talked of 1400 rounds of ammunition for cluster bombs. Today, Fischer said the President suspended delivery of 155 mm. artillery ammunition which uses a cluster-type mechanism similar to that in the bombs. But he would not clarify whether these shells were part of the ammunition suspended last week.
Israel has maintained that its “Peace for Galilee” operation in Lebanon was a defensive action. It also claimed that cluster bombs were used only after Syria entered the fighting and only against military targets.
Fischer denied that today’s policy decision was made as a means to pressure Israel to restore the cease-fire in Lebanon. Israeli aircraft, artillery and gunboats have been bombing and shelling west Beirut for the past six days. But Fischer said the U.S. was hopeful that the cease-fire could be restored.
Meanwhile, U.S. special envoy Philip Habib arrived in Jerusalem today after meeting with Arab leaders in various capitals in an effort to find a country to admit the PLO men. He was scheduled to hold talks with Israeli officials.
Fischer announced today that Egyptian Foreign Minister Kamal Hassan Ali who arrives here tomorrow, will meet with Secretary of State George Shultz on Friday. Ali reportedly is bringing a message from President Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak has called on the U.S. to talk to the PLO and on Israel and the PLO to recognize each other. Fischer also said that Israeli Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir will visit Washington August 2-3.
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.
