French Government Under Sharp Attack from Left for Libya Arms Sale

The Government of President Georges Pompidou came under sharp criticism from many quarters today for its decision to sell arms to Libya including 50 supersonic Mirage III jets, while maintaining its tight embargo on arms sales to Israel. The criticism came from leftist sources, normally unfriendly to Israel, from newspapers that generally support the Government and from the pro-Government independent republican parties and the orthodox Gaullist DDT faction.

The feeling in French political circles was that the Pompidou regime has adopted a clearly pro-Arab policy which is expected to become even more evident in the coming weeks. On its part. Government quarters tried to placate angered public opinion by stressing that the first Mirages will not be delivered to Libya until 1971. Official circles also justified the arms deal by the importance of Libyan oil. France imports 17 percent of its oil from Libya and from now on will pay for it with French francs, government sources said. They claimed that Libyan oil costs France a dollar less per barrel than its main oil imports from Algeria.

But the left-wing daily Combat, never a partisan of Israel, headlined the Libyan deal story, “A Criminal Betrayal.” The newspaper Figaro questioned the morality of a government which “sells arms to one side while refusing to supply the means of self-defense to the other.” Laurier said President Pompidou has outdone former President de Gaulle in the one-sidedness of his Middle East policy. The central committee of the Socialist Party held a special meeting to discuss the Libyan deal. It issued a communique deploring the arms sale as a “tragic act.” Foreign Minister Maurice Schumann and Defense Minister Michel Debre are to appear before the political committee of the Gaullist UDT faction Tuesday to explain the Government’s act.