Israeli defense circles today denied that Israel violated any agreement with the United States by using American made weapons in south Lebanon. Israel maintains that its air and ground activities in south Lebanon are defensive moves to deter the Palestinian terrorists from carrying out operations against Israeli targets.
The military sources were reacting to a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance yesterday that Israel may have violated its agreement with the U.S. by the use of the American weapons. Israeli officials note there is no clause in the purchase agreements restricting the use of the American-made planes for operations like the recent bombings of terrorist bases in south Lebanon.
There are prohibitions of some specific items, such as the cluster bombs, the military sources noted. They pointed out that Israel admitted that it had violated the agreement when it used the cluster bombs during the Litani operation, which marked Israel’s intrusion into south Lebanon last year.
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