The Administration has decided to continue pushing Congress into agreeing that the United States sell six of the huge C-130 military transport planes to Egypt and train Egyptian crews to handle them but has postponed making any further military support applications until after the Presidential election in November.
The decision was taken Thursday at the White House, according to reliable reports, where President Ford conferred with Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger following the latter’s official disclosure of Administration thinking about arms for Egypt to the House International Relations Committee.
Within the Congress itself and from Israel came reports of furious reaction to the Administration’s decision to supply weapons to Egypt. Israel’s Ambassador Simcha Dinitz, acting on instructions from Jerusalem, saw Kissinger Friday to tell him that Israel opposes any sale of military supplies to Egypt, including the C-130’s.
Sen. Henry M. Jackson (D.Wash), campaigning in Florida for the Democratic Presidential nomination, told audiences there that “I am against supplying weapons to Egypt. The Ford-Kissinger policy of launching a military supply relationship with Egypt is cynical and dangerous. It can only increase the chance of war in the Middle East and the severity of a new conflict there.”
SISCO EXPLAINS U.S. POSITION
The Administration’s thrust on Egypt’s behalf was followed up Friday by Undersecretary of State Joseph J. Sisco in an appearance before the Senate Budget Committee Mindful of Israel’s opposition and the feeling in Congress on arming Egypt, Sisco said that the current consultations by the Administration with the Congress on military equipment for Egypt was confined to the transport planes and training of crews.
“There cannot be an overall relationship with Egypt without considering this kind of need,” Sisco said. He declared supplying the C-130’s to Egypt would not affect the balance of power between Israel and her Arab neighbors and is “more political and psychological.” But at the Capitol, the reports were that the consultative process between the Administration and Congress could be better described as “a declaration in which the State Department informed Congressmen about decisions already made.”
REASSESSMENT ALL OVER AGAIN
That the Administration began consulting with the Congress last week about the planes was seen as part of the Administration’s tactics to get the movement going for supplies to Egypt as a counter to action in the Congress to give more support to Israel than the Administration would like to give at this time.
“It’s reassessment all over again in a new form,” a source said. The pressure being exerted on Congressional supporters of Israel is that if they wish to give more help to Israel, then they also must give more to Egypt, it was reported.
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