Israel is quietly receiving military spare parts from France, although the embargo laid down by the late President Charles deGaulle is still in effect, according to the French weekly Nouvelle Observateur. The magazine cited this report as further evidence that France-Israeli relations have improved considerably in the last few months. It said that spare parts were being sent to Tel Aviv “discreetly, just as they were before the Cherbourg Affair.” The “Cherbourg Affair” occurred on Christmas Day, 1969, when five unarmed gunboats built for Israel in France but under embargo, were spirited away from Cherbourg by Israeli crews. The incident aroused the French government’s anger and reportedly led to a tightening of the arms embargo against Israel which had been in effect since the June, 1967 Arab-Israeli war. But Israeli circles here claimed today that the embargo on spare parts was enforced even before the gunboats left Cherbourg. They had no comment on the report that spare parts were now being delivered to Israel.
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