The flow of arms from the Soviet Union to the United Arab Republic was reported today to be increasing in quantity and quality. Foreign Minister Golda Meir told visiting Americans that the supply of late-model Soviet jet fighter planes to the UAR was a “special reason for concern” to Israel.
Gershon Avner, head of the United States desk in the Foreign Ministry, said that “the newer Soviet weapons, in larger number, are being steadily directed to Nasser.”
(Cairo dispatches received in London today, disclosed that the United Arab Republic had asked the Soviet Union to supply it with the latest model “Super-MIG” jet fighters to offset the late-model French jet fighters used by the Israeli Air Force.
(Cairo reports to London said a Communist Chinese military mission had reached an agreement with the UAR for the use of Egyptian military depots as dumps for Chinese war materiel being supplied to the Algerian rebels. UAR diplomats indicated this weekend, it was reported, that the Chinese war materiel might also be used against Israel. They asserted that both Algeria and Israel were Arab struggles in which the Arabs had to help themselves from whatever sources were available.)
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