President Reagan said today that the U.S. was trying to end the arms race in the Middle East by continuing from where “Camp David left off and bring about a peace in the Middle East.”
U.S. policy is “to try to persuade, particularly the more moderate Arab states, to join in the peacekeeping process with Israel,” the President said in response to questions at a nationally televised press conference in the East Room of the White House.
Reagan maintained that if this peace was-achieved, then the only weapons that would be needed by the Middle Eastern countries would be to meet an “external threat” from countries such as the Soviet Union. He rejected a claim by an un-named Saudi Arabian official that the U.S. was nothing but an “arms salesman” in the Middle East.
Reagan again stressed that there are “no differences in (Middle East) policy” between Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and Secretary of State Alexander Haig. He said he had to “reassure” Israeli Premier Menachem Begin this week because of the “overblown way” in which Weinberger’s trip to Jordan was “portrayed in (news) stories.” Reagan reiterated that there was “no change” in the U.S. support of Israel.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
