Reports of Israeli arms sales to Iran, appearing in several leading West German dailies today, are intended by the government to bolster its case for the sale of German arms to Saudi Arabia, observers here believe.
Information apparently leaked to the press by the government cites West German intelligence reports that Israel plans to sell Iran 200 106 mm. recoilless anti-tank guns this summer. They are manufactured in Israel under an American license and Israel sold the same type of gun to Iran in 1982, according to the reports.
The reports, attributed by the newspapers simply to “sources in Bonn” claim that Israel has supplied Iran with more than $500 million in weaponry, the transactions being made mainly through intermediaries in Switzerland, Holland and Britain.
They assert that Israel has been an important arms supplier to Iran for a considerable time and that gov ernment officials privately point out that Israel sells weapons of its own, American-made weapons and weapons captured from the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon in 1982.
These reports imply that Israel is involved in aiding an extremist Islamic state presently at war with one of its neighbors and potentially a threat to pro-Western Saudi Arabia.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung which frequently supports Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s government, reported that Kohl recently argued at a meeting with American Jewish leaders in Washington that Israeli arms supplies to Iran contribute to the continuation of the war between Iran and Iraq. Kohl indicated that this made even more urgent West Germany’s planned arms sales to friendly nations in the area, notably Saudi Arabia, the newspaper said.
The reports are timed to coincide with the signing of the first contracts between West German arms manufacturers and the Saudi government, expected in the next few days, with the Bonn government’s approval. The issue remains controversial. The pro-Israel West German publisher Axel Springer has issued a last minute appeal to the government to refrain from selling arms to the Saudis.
In an article in Die Welt, his largest newspaper. Springer claimed that in several instances, arms supplied to the Saudis were transferred to other Arab countries and to the PLO.
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