Decision Pending on Lifting Embargo on Planes to Israel

State Department Deputy spokesman Alan Romberg said today, at a Department briefing, that he did not know when an announcement would be made concerning the release of the F-15 and F-16 war planes embargoed for delivery to Israel or whether that announcement would be made from here or California where the President is vacationing. He interrupted his vacation today to meet with his national security advisors to discuss a variety of issues, including the planes for Israel.

“That decision simply hasn’t been taken, to my knowledge, not only decisions on the substantive matter but how it is to be handled,” he said. He added that the decision could come as early as today. (See late bulletin Pg. 3.)

Reporters asked Romberg to comment on remarks made yesterday by Prime Minister Menachem Begin that the embargo was not justifiable, but he refused to comment, declaring that “I am not going to characterize his remarks.”

During the briefing, it was revealed that the decision on the Reagan Administration review of Israel’s bombing of Beirut July 17 is also expected to be made this week. Romberg said the two decisions would not be made simultaneously, however, or that the decision on the planes would not be linked to the review of the Beirut bombings.

ISRAEL EXPECTED TO ABIDE BY 1962 DECISION

In a statement, Romberg said: “We certainly would expect that any equipment supplied (to Israel) would be in accordance with the provisions of the July 23, 1962 agreement in which it states ‘the government of Israel assures the United States government that such equipment, material or services as may be acquired from the United States under the provisions of Section 408 of the Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949, as amended, are required for and will be used solely to maintain its internal security, its legitimate self-defense, or to permit it to participate in the defense of the area of which it is a part, or in United Nations collective security arrangements and measures, and that it will not undertake any act of aggression against any other state’.

Romberg was asked whether any decision on the release of the planes might be linked to a compromise by Israel on the Administration’s plan to sell AWACS reconnaissance planes and other military equipment to Saudi Arabia. He stated: “I think we have made it clear several times in the past that the decision on the airplanes for Israel and the AWACS decision are not related.”

Asked about a possible date for the return of Philip Habib, President Reagan’s special emissary to the Middle East, Romberg said, “He has said he is at the disposal of the President … there is nothing specific on when he will go back” to the Middle East.