Defense Ministry officials and army spokesmen had “no comment” yesterday on reports from Riyadh that Israeli warplanes had overflown Saudi Arabian territory in the vicinity of the Tabok air base. The officials vehemently denied, however, reports from other sources that Israeli planes had attacked targets in Saudi Arabia.
The “no comments” stance on the overflight and the denial that targets were attacked indicated to observers here that the overflight apparently for photo-reconnaissance purposes had indeed taken place and that they probably have been going on for some time. According to the observers they were intended as a warning to the Saudis.
That view seemed to be confirmed by Defense Minister Ariel Sharon’s remarks to foreign correspondents Monday that Israel now regarded Saudi Arabia as a “confrontation” state because of the advanced weaponry it will be receiving from the U.S., including AWACS reconnaissance aircraft.
Sharon told the correspondents it was mistaken to regard the Saudis as moderates. He said they had fought against Israel in all its wars since 1948. “Israel will treat the Saudis like we treat every confrontation Arab state because the Saudis, by having these weapons and opposing the peace (Camp David accords) we therefore regard them as a confrontation state,” he said. “That is the way we are going to treat them, like a hostile Arab confrontation state.”
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