Hearings on the proposed sale of two highly sophisticated “Hawk” missile systems to Jordan, that were to have begun yesterday, were postponed by the House International Relations Committee until next week. The hearings will be on a resolution of inquiry on the $100 million arms deal.
Rep, Benjamin Rosenthal (D.NY), one of the opponents of the sale, said he will ask the House to vote a demand for additional information on the sale. “This arms deal,” he said in a letter to all House members, “threatens to alter dramatically the balance of power and to encourage a new Jordanian-Syrian militancy.” Rep. Thomas Morgan (D. Pa.), chairman of the House committee, had agreed to the hearings as part of a compromise agreement with critics of the proposed sale.
The move to postpone hearings forestalled a possibly angry debate on the Mideast as Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger was flying to Europe for a series of meetings, including one with Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin and another with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko.
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