A Pentagon spokesman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency yesterday that “there is nothing to substantiate the report” that Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger favors an American military base near Sharm el Sheikh on the Sinai peninsula. The denial came after MK Shulamit Aloni, head of Israel’s Civil Rights Party, told a Tel Aviv press conference that Schlesinger favored such a move after Sinai has been demilitarized and the Suez Canal reopened to world shipping.
Ms. Aloni, who recently returned to Israel after a speaking tour in the U.S., did not disclose the source of her information. She said the Israeli government should encourage the establishment of such a base. The leader of the Civil Rights Party, who resigned from the government after the National Religious Party rejoined Premier Yitzhak Rabin’s coalition government, asserted that Schlesinger had the support of other U.S. leaders, including a number of Senators for the idea of establishing a base.
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