Report Indicates France About to Deliver Ground-to-air Missiles to Lebanon

France is about to agree to deliver ground-to-air missiles to Arab countries, most likely to Lebanon, it was reported here today, The missile referred to is the “Crotale” which has a five mile range and is effective against low-flying aircraft, the report said. Production is expected to begin next year. The report, which could not be confirmed, was said to have originated with the Washington correspondent of Al Aharam, the Cairo daily. A French newspaper has suggested that the story was “fed” to the Al Aharam man by “U.S. officials” in order to take the sting out of the expected decision of the Nixon administration to sell more combat jets to Israel. Lebanon was not referred to specifically in the Al Ahram report. The French government maintains that its arms embargo on the Middle East does not apply to that country because it was not a combatant in the June, 1967 Arab-Israel war. Sources here noted that France has a “special relationship” with Lebanon and the fact that it has come under increasingly severe Israeli raids was not likely to alter its position with regard to the embargo. According to some reports, a number of French missions have gone to Beirut in recent months. Reports from Cairo today say that President Nasser and his cabinet are finalizing the “biggest war budget in Egypt’s history,” an amount equivalent of $1.3 billion.