A State Department plan to supply military aid to certain Arab States which are not contiguous to Israel failed today when the department confirmed that the Saudi Arabian Government had rejected the American arms offer.
The State Department’s plan had been to give weapons to Iraq and Saudi Arabia to arm them against possible aggression. The department took the view that friends of Israel could not take exception to these arms shipments since neither country bordered on Israel. The Israeli Government, which objected strongly to the armament of any of the Arab States, pointed out that supply of American arms to any of the Arab states would upset the precarious balance of power in the Middle East and threaten the security of the Jewish State.
Critics of the State Department plan to give arms to the Arab States pointed out that there could be no effective safeguards against transfer of armaments from these states to states bordering on Israel which could employ them against the Jewish State.
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