Secretary of State Alexander Haig said today he plans to visit the Middle East to help the autonomy talks progress “sooner rather than later.” He said no date had yet been fixed.
He told an Israel television correspondent in an interview in Washington that the Middle East still remained “in focus” even though President Reagan was giving first priority to economic matters and second priority to U.S. relations with its immediate neighbors to the north and south.
Haig said that despite economic cutbacks, Israel’s interests had been “fenced off and preserved.” He indicated that Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel would be told on Tuesday — apparently at his meeting with President Reagan — that the U.S. was going ahead with its plans to supply Saudi Arabia with sophisticated weapons, a matter which had been under consideration by the previous Carter Administration, also. Israel would be compensated by the supply of other military hardware, especially in the aviation field, the television correspondent reported.
He said that America was to back-track on a previous policy and would now allow Israel to export locally-made weapons which included American-made components. The U.S. barred the sale of Israeli-made Kfir fighter aircraft to Mexico because it is powered by an American engine.
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