Defense Minister Ariel Sharon declared last night that Israel was prepared to accept a “broad based” strategic relationship with the United States “across a wide front” and if such a relationship was not offered, it would prefer to forego the idea of strategic cooperation altogether.
Sharon made his remarks in the course of a detailed briefing to reporters on the meetings between Premier Menachem Begin and President Reagan and other U.S. Administration officials in Washington last week.
The Israeli defense chief, who accompanied Begin and was present at most of the sessions, emphatically denied that Israel had “reconciled itself” to the American proposal to sell AWACS reconnaissance planes and other sophisticated weaponry to Saudi Arabia as the price for its closer strategic relationship with the U.S.
DENOUNCES LABOR PARTY CLAIMS
Sharon, who returned to Israel over the weekend, fiercely denounced the opposition Labor Party for claiming that Begin had abandoned his objections to the AWACS deal and had agreed, without consultation with the Knesset, to place Israel’s armed forces at the disposal of the U.S. Sharon accused Labor of making false charges either out of ignorance or a deliberate desire to harm the government in the midst of delicate negotiations.
Sharon lauded the Reagan Administration and Begin’s conduct in the talks. But he insisted that Israel is “not interested in a narrow limited cooperation.” He said a broad relationship must inevitably “tie Israel’s hands to a certain extent” but Israel was ready and eager for such a relationship and would undertake all of the “responsibilities” implied by it.
His remarks seemed to be directed at statements and leaks emanating from some Administration quarters in Washington that the proposed strategic cooperation with Israel would be severely limited and restricted in scope. This has been the cause of some concern in official circles here inasmuch as Begin did not secure a written memorandum on the subject while he was in Washington.
But a U.S. official briefing reporters here tried to allay fears that the U.S. regarded strategic coopera-
tion with Israel as little more than symbolic. The official, not publicly identified, said the Reagan Administration’s readiness for closer strategic ties with Israel represented “a major shift in perspective for the U.S.”
He said that previous Administrations had been” ideologically reluctant to recognize that Israel and the U.S. have a lot to offer each other.” He noted that in the weeks ahead, defense planning teams from the two countries would review in detail all of the many and varied possibilities for strategic cooperation.
Sharon will go to Washington in November for meetings with Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger who, hopefully, will be prepared to sign a memorandum of understanding formalizing the arrangements worked out by the defense planning teams, the official said.
He was reluctant, at this juncture, to list the likely areas of cooperation but he appeared to reflect positive American reaction to the idea of Israeli aerial “cover” for U.S. air and sea transportation of strategic material in an emergency.
Much of Sharon’s briefing was devoted to how Israel, by virtue of its geographical location, its stable government and its sharing of the American Administration’s view that Soviet expansionism represents the greatest threat to the security of the region, could be of immense value to the U.S. in time of crisis. In that connection, he mentioned that Israel could facilitate American military operations directed toward southern Europe or toward the Persian Gulf area.
‘UNDERSTANDING IN PRINCIPLE’ REPORTED
Sharon said an “understanding in principle” had been reached with the U.S. in aerial and sea operations, the holding of joint exercises and the stockpiling of emergency military stores and medical equipment and facilities for the use of American forces in the region.
He said that in reaching that understanding, Israel stressed that its own industries must be utilized wherever possible. He explained that if the U.S. decided to store military equipment here, the ammunition in that store would be manufactured in Israel and, similarly, medical equipment for American field hospitals would be Israel-produced.
Sharon dwelt at length on the Soviet menace which he said was not solely a problem for the U.S. on the superpower level but constituted a real and direct security threat to Israel. Therefore, he said, the Labor opposition’s contention that the government sacrificed Israel’s strategic interests to those of the U.S. was unfounded. The aim was to dovetail the Reagan Administration’s global determination to restrain the Soviets with Israel’s prime security concerns, he said.
REVIEWED THE SITUATION IN LEBANON
The U.S. official who briefed Israeli reporters disclosed that the Begin-Reagan talks in Washington included a thorough review of the situation in Lebanon and that the two sides had reached a measure of agreement on an overall approach to that complex issue.
He indicated that American policy in the months ahead would seek to foster efforts toward political reconciliation in Lebanon which were already underway. At the same time, Washington would seek to bolster the scope and power of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and eventually achieve a mutual scaling down of heavy weaponry on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border. Begin and his aides had complained in Washington about continuing attacks by the Palestine Liberation Organization on the Christian forces of Maj. Saad Haddad in southern Lebanon. The U.S. official said that while these were not formal violations of the ceasefire, they were of deep concern to the U.S. “We hope, through third parties, to have some influence on that problem,” he said.
Sharon added, on the subject of Lebanon, that Israel had stressed to the American leadership Lebanon’s role today as the main center of world-wide terrorism. He claimed that nearly 2,000 terrorists trained there in the past year who belonged to organizations as disparate as the Baader-Meinhof group in West Germany and the Mozambique Radical Front.
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