Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger Friday rejected a compromise proposal advanced earlier in the week by three U.S. Senators regarding the sale of six C-130 transport planes to Egypt. He said the C-130s will be provided to Egypt as a “foreign military sale” and not as a commercial arrangement as suggested to him by Sens. Jacob K. Javits (R.NY), Hubert H. Humphrey (D.Minn.) and Clifford Case (R.NJ), all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Kissinger’s disclosure of the Administration’s decision came while he was standing alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Yigal Allon in the State Department lobby responding to questions about their meeting. Allon was not asked and had no comment about the C-130s.
“We have no plans beyond the C-130s in U.S. arrangements for sales of military equipment to Egypt,” Kissinger said. The decision to provide those aircraft “won’t imply any precedent,” he stressed, and “does not imply an obligation” by Congress “to vote on anything else.” When he was asked directly if the arrangement would be a commercial one, Kissinger replied “no.” He then added that the foreign military sales route “certainly has the most feasibility.”
The three Senators felt that a confrontation between Congress and the Administration would be avoided and Egypt would still get its aircraft if the deal were commercial through the Lockheed Aircraft Co. which manufactures them and therefore not subject to scrutiny by Congress under present legislation. As a military sale. Congress has a veto power.
UDALL DENOUNCES SALE
Meanwhile, Rep. Morris Udall (D.Ariz.) “denounced” as “senseless and unnecessary” the projected sale of military equipment to Egypt. Udall, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President, said in a statement Friday that “the real issue” is not the transfer of six C-130 transport planes but whether “this action opens the door to the sale of other weapons” to Egypt.
“There is no military threat to Egypt,” he said, adding but “the greatest threat of peremptory military action is the threat to Israel.” He noted that Israel already faces a three-to-one disadvantage in planes and tanks, a nine-to-one disadvantage in artillery and a five-to-one disadvantage in active manpower.
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