France lifted today its arms embargo on the Arab nations and may ship to the Arabs some of the arms manufactured for Israel, it was learned here today. It was announced in Paris that France was negotiating a large sale of military equipment to Iraq. The embargo imposed on the Arab states and Israel after the outbreak of the Six-Day War has been lifted for the Arabs.
(The Paris daily, L’Aurore, reported today that France would sell 50 Mirage-V jet fighters to Iraq, 15 Mirage-E3 jets and eight Nord Atlas jet bombers. The newspaper, Combat, denounced reports of French sale of aircraft to Iraq, asserting that “France is about to commit an injustice of a criminal nature. It will, by so doing, increase the danger to Israel.”
(Official French sources declined to comment on the reported sales to Iraq and on reports that the planes being sold to that Arab state were the aircraft Israel had ordered but had not received because of the de Gaulle embargo.)
Reports from Paris made it clear that the embargo would remain in force for Israel because that country offended President de Gaulle by failing to heed his wishes. French sources said that France now deemed it desirable to sell arms to Iraq, which recently signed an agreement with a French oil company to develop large areas confiscated from the British-owned Iraq Petroleum Company. An official statement issued in Paris said “France has no reason not to sell arms to the Arab nations.”
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.
