Bitterness Against French Sale of Jets to Libya Reaches New Heights in Israel

Bitterness against France reached new heights among Israelis today following the French Government’s acknowledgment that it will sell about 50 supersonic Mirage jets to Libya under a major arms deal recently concluded in Paris. The Cabinet issued a strong denunciation of the arms deal after a briefing by Foreign Minister Abba Eban at its regular Sunday session. The statement was published as an official communique. Mr. Eban is expected to hand it tonight to the French Ambassador, Francis Hure in the form of a protest and it will be transmitted to Israel’s Ambassador in Paris, Walter Eytan, for immediate presentation to the French Foreign Ministry, government sources said. Diplomatic circles here said Franco-Israel relations have reached their lowest ebb since the June, 1967 Six-Day War because of the Libyan deal. (In Paris the French State radio said it could result in a break in diplomatic relations between the two countries.)

The French-Libyan arms deal is said to involve 50 Mirage III fighter-bombers, the same number and the same type of aircraft that France has withheld from Israel under its arms embargo although they were paid for in full more than a year ago. The Cabinet’s communique referred to the arms embargo as “a moral and legal injustice” on top of which France “is now prepared to sell 50 Mirages to Libya which has announced its intention to join in future war efforts against Israel and which demonstrates consistent and extremist activities in the hostile campaign against Israel.” The Cabinet statement went on to say, “It is safe to assume that these (French) arms will be used against Israel.” The Cabinet expressed the hope that “The French Government will restore its policy of friendship and decency toward Israel to the satisfaction of both nations.”

A Foreign Ministry spokesman accused the French yesterday of escalating the Middle East arms race and said they were responsible for the rapidly deteriorating situation in that region. The spokesman said France had virtually destroyed its moral position as a peace-making factor in the Arab-Israel conflict by its arms sales to Libya.

The deal was confirmed Friday by Agence France Presse which quoted sources understood to be in the French Foreign Ministry. The news agency is frequently used as an outlet for announcements the Government is unwilling to make directly. The French originally denied that any arms deal was being negotiated with Libya. Last week Paris admitted that 10-15 Mirage jets were involved in such a deal. Friday’s report confirmed earlier rumors that Libya would receive 50 of the high performance war-planes, among the speediest, most efficient jet fighters in the world. The figure of 10-15 was said to represent the initial deliveries.

ISRAEL FEARS JETS WILL GO TO EGYPTIAN AIR FORCE

Israel’s alarm and concern was heightened by the fear that most if not all of the Mirages would eventually find their way to the Egyptian and probably the Syrian air forces to supplement Soviet-supplied aircraft. Military experts in France and other countries say Libya’s minute air force is incapable of maintaining or flying the complex, sophisticated Mirages which, in any event, are not required by Libya for defensive purposes. French sources have insisted that a clause in the Libyan arms deal forbids the transfer of the planes to any third party. But in the international arms traffic, such clauses are regarded as meaningless because there is no way to enforce them.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman said here that it was clear to all who are acquainted with Libya’s requirements, including France, that the weapons being sold are for the purpose of filling Arab supplies to complement Soviet weapons they are receiving in order to prepare for war against Israel. While France maintains its policy of embargo against Israel, it strengthens the war potential of the Arab states that refuse to sign a peace treaty with Israel, he said.

Defense Minister Moshe Dayan lashed out at the French Government Friday when he went to Lydda Airport to greet Admiral Mordechai Limon, the chief of Israel’s arms purchasing mission in France. Admiral Limon was recalled to Israel at the demand of the French Government for his alleged role in last month’s gunboat affair. The French Defense Ministry accused him of signing false papers to make possible the release of five French-built gunboats withheld from the Israel Navy by the embargo. The unarmed boats left Cherbourg on Christmas Day and sailed to Israel allegedly under civilian auspices, to be used in off-shore oil prospecting.

DAYAN FINDS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR LIMON’S EXPULSION FROM FRANCE

Gen. Dayan said he could find no justification for Admiral Limon’s ouster. He said the gunboats’ papers were in perfect order when they left France and that his Ministry had nothing to do with them. He said the injustice of France’s attitude was never more apparent than when it expelled Admiral Limon because Israel legally took possession of its property, while at the same time it was negotiating arms

The French seek to justify their arms deal with Libya on grounds that it is better for a Western nation to supply arms to that country than to have it rely on the Soviet Union. The French insist that the deliveries of Mirages to Libya will not begin before 1971. By that time they say they are confident that the Four Powers — United States, Soviet Russia, Britain and France — will have reached agreement on a Middle East peace settlement acceptable to both sides. The French have claimed recently that a substantial area of agreement already has been reached among the Big Powers. Foreign Ministry officials said here today that such claims were false and were an attempt by France to blur the fact that the recent Soviet reply to American proposals had been totally negative. They said the French wanted to create the impression that some kind of agreement had been reached in order to “take the heat off the Russians.” They have been trying to draw up a list of points on which there is some kind of agreement between the Four Powers but there is no sign that these include any basic issues or that any change has occurred in the Soviet attitude, the Israeli official said.