State Department spokesman Charles Bray, asked today to comment on the new Soviet shipments of MIG-23 jets to Egypt, replied that the Department does not "take them lighly" and is "keeping careful tabs" on their effect on the military balance of power. Soviet arms deliveries, he said, have been "recurring" since the Six-Day War in the absence of an Egyptian Israeli peace agreement, but he said that to blame Israel for that would be excessive. Bray declined to say if additional Soviet personnel have been sent to Egypt in recent days. A State Department source added later that the USSR may have "psychological motives" for the new shipments and that "it would be imprudent to disregard them."
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