The French Defense Ministry and the Iraqi Embassy here both denied yesterday that negotiations are going on over the sale to Iraq of the newest model of France’s supersonic Mirage jet, the F-1. The Ministry said that no talks with Iraq are going on at the moment. Observers here noted however that France had persistently denied for weeks that it was negotiating the sale of Mirages to Libya, a deal that was confirmed last week.
The Mirage F-l is not scheduled to go into production until next year. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia who is here on a private visit, was received by President Georges Pompidou yesterday. He said later that their talk covered general matters pertaining to the Middle East situation but no “precise subjects.” He said he was “very optimistic” about commercial relations between his country and France.
(The semi-official Cairo newspaper AI Ahram reported that the sale of British Centurion tanks to Israel would be discussed at a meeting of Arab ambassadors to open in London shortly. The paper said that Egyptian leaders have already brought up the matter with British officials visiting Cairo. Britain has reportedly agreed to sell Centurion tanks to Israel but is still hedging on Israel’s request to purchase the newer, more powerful Chieftain tanks.)
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
