Bonn Urges U.s., Britain and France to Coordinate Western Arms Sales to the Middle East

The Bonn government has called on the United States, Britain and France to coordinate Western arms sales to the Middle East. Deputy Foreign Minister Alois Mertes stressed in a statement on the eve of Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s departure on a visit to the U.S. that cooperation in this matter is needed to prevent, or at least limit, possible negative consequences of Western arms sales to the troubled region.

Mertes was apparently seeking to ward off American criticism of West Germarry’s plans to sell advanced weapons to Saudi Arabia. The issue has already been raised in Congress and is fiercely opposed by American Jews and by Israel.

Mertes made it clear that Bonn rejects the notion that it is acceptable for the U.S., Britain and France to supply arms to Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, but not for West Germany. No German, American, British or French tanks must endanger Israel, he said, “but it would be irresponsible to make moral differences among those four most important Western export states.”

West Germany, Mertes said, would not tolerate discrimination against its arms industry. “A special treatment of Germany within the Western alliance concerning arms exports would involve political and psychological risks,” he said.