Premier Yitzhak Rabin promised the Knesset this evening that the government would do all it could to persuade the U.S. not to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, but he did not sound too optimistic that this persuasion would help.
The Premier pointed out that America has sold weapons to the Saudis since the early 1950s–although the deals now envisaged were far in excess of anything known before, There had been a steep increase in the pace and scope of arms supplies from the West to Saudia since the Yom Kippur War, Rabin told the Knesset.
The quantities of tanks, planes and rockets now under consideration still did not compare in significance with the armaments of Syria, Egypt, or even Jordan, but they were most certainly a factor that Israel must take into consideration, he stated. Saudia had regiments stationed permanently in Syria and Jordan and there was no knowing if she would send in even more troops in time of war.
The arms, too, could easily find their way to the “confrontation states,” Rabin noted, Israel was constantly arguing with the U.S. Administration and other circles in Washington against arming Saudia, the Premier asserted, and Israel would continue to do so.
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