Reports that Saudi Arabia has “loaned” Syria some of the combat planes sold to it by the United States have been raised by Israel with the U.S. “through diplomatic channels,” officials here disclosed today. Although no formal complaint has been submitted, the Israeli Embassy in Washington expressed the government’s concern over the matter, the officials said.
There is concern here as well that Saudian military aircraft and their pilots have been stationed in Jordan. They were shown on Jordanian television last night when King Hussein visited the airfield where they are stationed, inspected the planes and chatted with their pilots.
Israel has consistently contended that the sale of warplanes and other weapons by the U.S. and other Western powers to Arab states such as Saudi Arabia that were not direct participants in the Middle East wars, can and do affect the Arab-Israeli arms balance because those weapons find their way to the “confrontation states” despite restrictive clauses in the sales contracts.
Reports in foreign news media that American-made Saudian planes have gone to Syria were not officially confirmed here. But the acknowledgment that the issue has been raised with Washington seemed to indicate that the reports are correct. The officials also indicated that the presence of Saudian war planes in Jordan would also be taken up with the U.S. in diplomatic contacts.
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