French official sources confirmed here today that France has been selling a “limited amount of military equipment” to Egypt as well as to other Arab countries. The French sources were not prepared to specify the type or the quantity of material exported to these states. Official spokesmen stressed, however that France would “respect the area’s balance of power.”
It is known that France has sold Egypt electronic equipment, radar installations as well as a small quantity of “Crotale” missiles. The French also hope to sell Egypt the new French combat plane. “Delta 2000” which will roll off production lines only in 1980, at the earliest Egypt has been negotiating for French-made “F-1A” but has reportedly not yet signed an actual agreement to buy the planes.
Other Arab countries have acquired a relatively large number of “Mirage” planes, some of which have been handed over to the Egyptian air force. Unconfirmed reports say Egypt has already received some 48 Mirages and more are on the way.
ARABS ARE KEEN ON DELTA
Western military experts say the Mirage, including the F-1, is a plane of “the past generation” and not in a class with the new Soviet and American models such as the Russian MIG-23 or the American F-15. It is this fact which explains Egypt’s apparent reluctance to buy the plane. French industrial circles hope, however, to be in a better exporting situation when the “Delta 2000 will be available. These circles say a number of Arab countries have already shown interest in the Delta’s possibilities, performance and price.
France increasingly relies on its arms exports to balance its foreign trade budget and more than 200,000 French workers are directly employed by the arms industry, and several hundred thousand more by related industrial concerns. In spite of this, French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing is being subjected to strong pressure to stop arms exports to sensitive spots. This pressure originated mainly as a result of the Lebanese fighting between Moslems and Christians.
Paris Archbishop Cardinal Marty recently called from the pulpit of Notre Dame Cathedral on the government to stop the trade. “It is immoral and wrong to sell instruments of death,” he declared. Other members of the clergy have also made known to the Elysee similar sentiments. Faced, however, with a strong coalition of industrialists, trade unions and financial circles, it seems highly unlikely that France will give up its main export item, a product which it hopes will soon pay for all its oil imports.
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