Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir claimed that the flow of both American and Soviet arms into the Middle East endangers the military balance in the region and could ignite a local war or even World War III.
Addressing the Knesset yesterday on four agenda motions related to U.S. arms supplies to Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Shamir said he had expressed Israel’s concern to American officials. He said the supply of arms to countries which rejected the Camp David accords only encouraged them. Shamir said he understood the American motivation in supplying weapons to Saudi Arabia in order to secure its oil. But he observed that the Iranian experience proved that arms did not necessarily save a pro-Western regime and warned that in the long run they would be used against Israel.
According to Shamir, even the arms sales to Egypt required caution and should be implemented in stages.
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