State Department sources reiterated here today that Undersecretary of State W. Averett Harriman has no authorization on his present mission to Israel to offer Israel arms shipments to replace those cut off by West Germany. The reiteration was made in a State Department announcement that the Undersecretary’s military jet transport carrying him to Israel had been forced to make an emergency landing for mechanical reasons in Bermuda.
The principal purpose of the Harriman mission to Israel, it was repeated, is to help extricate West Germany from its diplomatic entanglement stemming from the cancelation of Arms deliveries to Israel.
Department spokesman Robert McCloskey said also he was still unable to state whether Cairo was on the list of capitals Mr. Harriman will visit in his effort to “calm down tensions in the Middle East. Department sources revealed that he might caution Israel to use restraint in connection with possible Israel responses to Arab threats to block Jordan River waters.
Commenting on the visit of East German Communist head of state Walter Ulbricht to Egypt, over vigorous Bonn objections. Mr. McCloskey said the United States did not look with favor on the visit “because we support the federal republic of Germany as the representative of the German people.”
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