A senior government official said today that Israel did not expect any significant change in the Middle East policies of either the United States or the Soviet Union to emerge from the current Nixon-Brezhnev summit talks.
The official said that contacts between Washington and Jerusalem made it clear that the U.S. intends to stand firm on its Mideast position. He said that neither are the Russians likely to waver from their stance and that the two leaders would probably agree, as they did in Moscow last year, to reaffirm the importance of Security Council Resolution 242 and the need to keep peace in the Middle East.
According to this official, neither Washington nor Moscow wants to tackle the Middle East problem in depth at this juncture because they know it is an area of inevitable dispute between them.
The proposed U.S. sale of Phantom jets to Saudi Arabia was a subject of debate in the Knesset yesterday Foreign Minister Abba Eban, who cautioned Knesset members “not to lose balance” over the issue, warned nevertheless that Phantoms provided to a state whose leaders call for a holy war against Israel might encourage war and postpone peace in the region.
EBAN WARNS ON ARMS SALES TO ARABS
Eban said that notwithstanding the American assurances that the number of Phantoms to be sold the Saudians was insignificant, the fact is that Saudi Arabia is getting Mirage Jets from France and the Phantoms will “give them a new qualitative dimension, one of an offensive nature which they do not have without the Phantoms.”
Eban spoke in reply to an agenda motion submitted by Dov Milman of the Gahal opposition. Milman warned that U.S. supplies to the Saudian arsenal would encourage the front-line Arab states such as Egypt, Syria and Jordan to undertake military action against Israel. He noted that Saudi Arabia often supplied Jordan with weaponry despite clauses in the original sales contracts forbidding such transfers. Milman said that Saudian Phantoms could fly to Israel and back without refueling. He also warned that naval craft the U.S. proposes to sell to Saudi Arabia could menace Israeli navigation on the Red Sea.
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