U.S. and Britain Cautious on Soviet Statement on Arms to Middle East

The statement this week-end by Nikita Khrushchev, head of the Communist Party of the USSR, that the Soviet Union would not send arms to the Middle East providing “other countries” do the same, was interpreted here today to mean that the Soviet Government would discontinue supplying arms to Egypt if the Western Powers would agree to a “blanket freeze” on all arms shipments to that area.

It this were the case, it was pointed out here today, Egypt would be left in a position of great strength over Israel, since Egypt has already received a huge quantity of offensive arms from Communist countries, while Israel’s application for arms to the United States has not as yet been acted upon and in view of the fact that other Western countries have not sold arms to Israel.

(In Washington, it was indicated that the professed Soviet willingness to abide by an overall United Nations embargo on arms for the Middle East was received coolly at the State Department since it would imply the abandonment of the Baghdad Pact. Even if such an embargo concerned only the Arab countries and Israel, the United States and Brita in would no longer be in a position to send arms to Iraq, and Israel would be denied the jet fighters she has been trying to buy in Western countries to offset the increased air strength that Egypt acquired from the Soviet bloc.)

In his statement, made at a press conference in London prior to his return with Soviet Premier Bulganin to Moscow, Mr. Khrushchev said that the Soviet Union is prepared “to participate in an arms embargo in the Middle East “through the United Nations or some other way.” Asked whether his government would try to persuade other countries to reduce arms shipments to the Middle East–an obvious reference to Czechoslovakia’s sale of arms to Egypt–Mr. Khrushchev replied: “That is a very delicate question, but we should not want to by-pass it. As a matter of fact, we in our own country are-not shipping arms to anybody, and we would prefer that there were no such shipments at all. But such shipments are taking place.

“It would be wrong,” be continued, “if we were to say that the Soviet Union would not sell arms to states which might ask us to do so for the reason that shipments are being made to other countries. If it were possible to agree, through the United Nations or some other way, that these arms shipments should not take place, we would welcome that and we are prepared to take part in such an undertaking which would help bring peaceful conditions to the troubled parts of the world.”

Soviet Premier Bulganin said: “In view of the Soviet Government, the main source of international friction and the cause for the deterioration of relations between the Arab states and Israel is the creation of military groups such as that embraced in the Baghdad Pact. The British view does not share our interpretation, and we do not agree with them. Here, you see, we take different stands.” Mr. Bulganin concluded by stating that the agreement reached between the Soviet and British leaders in the talks here on the Middle East “opens no small possibility for our two countries.”