France and Israel resumed their negotiations yesterday in an effort to break the deadlock on the reimbursement by France of the money paid for the 50 Mirage planes embargoed by General Charles De Gaulle on the eve of the Six-Day War. The two delegations met at the French Foreign Ministry for what both sides described as “purely technical talks.”
It is understood that the two delegations led respectively by Israeli Ambassador Asher Ben Natan and the deputy head of the Quai D’Orsay’s Department of Economic Affairs, Christian D’Aumale, confined themselves to examining technical reports without touching upon the basic issue itself.
Since the start of the talks last autumn, Israel has been trying to turn the negotiations into a “package deal” touching upon many other political and economic issue while France has adamantly refused to be drawn out of the technical background dealing with the Mirages themselves. The talks will continue next week.
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.
