Arms Deal Between U.S. and Israel Revealed; Made Prior to Escalation

Israeli sources here made it clear today that the deal between the United States and Israel under which the American Government consented to supply Israel with a number of M-48 Patton tanks — revealed yesterday by the State Department–had been made prior to the recent escalation and intensification of the rearmament of the Arab states.

The Israeli sources voiced their comment after the State Department reported here that the U.S.A. has been selling tanks to Israel. The State Department confirmed the deal with Israel after Al Ahram, an influential daily newspaper published in Cairo, had claimed last week that Israel had received 200 of the Patton tanks from the United States. However, the State Department did not indicate the number of tanks sold to Israel.

The American consent to the tank deal with Israel, the Israeli sources said today, had not been given recently, since the negotiations on this matter had been concluded a long time ago. The U.S.A. decided to provide Israel with these tanks, the sources said, after the American Administration was convinced that the tanks were needed for the defense of Israel, and were regarded as part of the U.S. policy to maintain the stability and the balance of armaments in the Middle East.

The State Departments confirmation of the tank deal with Israel was couched in similar terms regarding the balance of power in the Middle East. Pointing out that it could not remain indifferent to the “massive” sales of Soviet arms to the Middle East region, the State Department declared: “Over the years, to meet modernization requirements, we have sold the Government of Israel various items of military equipment to help it meet its own defense and internal security requirements. These have included Patton tanks.”

State Department officials said they could not say specifically that the supply of tanks to Israel involved an assumption that the U.S. arrangement was a substitute for a West German deal to supply Israel with various armaments. But they indicated that it was fair to draw such a conclusion. The West German Government canceled an $80,000,000 arms deal with Israel in October, 1964. It was presumed here that the U.S.A. has also taken up the remainder of that German-Israeli contract.

TEXT OF STATE DEPARTMENTS STATEMENT ON ARMS TO MIDDLE EAST

The full text of the statement issued by the State Department yesterday, in which reference was made for the first time to the U.S. arms deal with Israel read as follows:

“There has been a recent spate of news stories relating to reported sales of military equipment by the United States to various countries in the Near East. The established United States policy has been to refrain from becoming a major supplier of arms in this area while retaining the option of helping the countries of the area meet their defense requirements through occasional, selective sales.

“These exceptions to our general policy have been based on careful case-by-case examination and a determination that such a sale would not be a destabilizing factor. The United States has made over the years repeated quiet efforts to encourage limitations on arms buildups in the area. Until those bear fruit, however, the United States cannot be indifferent to the potentially destabilizing effect of massive Soviet sales of arms to the area.

“Over the years, to meet modernization requirements, we have sold the Government of Israel various items of military equipment to help it meet its own defense and internal security requirements. These have included Patton tanks.

“We and the British recently have agreed to provide an air defense system to Saudi Arabia, the United States component being Hawk missiles, Similarity, in 1962, we sold the Hawk missile to Israel to provide the basis for an air defense system, We have also had a small military assistance program in Jordan under which we have furnished that country with modest amounts of military equipment and services, including Patton tanks. It is our policy not to discuss the specifics of these types of transactions. Accordingly we are not in a position to go into the details of military material furnished individual countries, beyond stating that supplies to those countries has been in accordance with our established policy.”

(The New York Times reported Friday from Cairo that the Soviet Union, refused to sell nuclear weapons to Egypt but promised President Nasser nuclear protection if Israel developed such weapons. The reports were attributed to Western embassies in Cairo but were described as still not officially confirmed. The refusal and the pledge were asserted to have been made in discussions in Cairo last December between Egyptian officials and a Soviet military delegation headed by A.A. Grechko, First Deputy Defense Minister, The Times report said that though neither Egypt nor Israel have atomic weapons, fears of an atomic arms race in the Middle East are widespread.)