The State Department officially announced today that the United States Government has decided to resume arms shipments to Jordan interrupted last June by the outbreak of the Six-Day War. The Department spokesman, Robert McCloskey, said that some of the weapons to be supplied Jordan were ordered before the June war and others could be entirely new items. He did not rule out jet aircraft when asked about the categories of arms to be furnished. Jordan had 36 of the F-104 Starfighter jets on order before the June outbreak.
Mr. McCloskey said that the decision announced today was taken because it was deemed “essential to the stability of the area.” He said for the record that the announcement meant that the United States was resuming arms supply to Jordan “as we have done in the case of other Near Eastern countries.” He cited the lifting of the arms embargo last Oct. 24 to permit arms shipments to Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia.
He stressed that the United States Government continued to believe in the need for restraint in all arms shipments to the area and pointed out that the arms for Jordan were “essential to the stability of the area.”
DECISION DISREGARDED PRESENT DIFFICULTIES ON JORDAN-ISRAEL CEASE-FIRE LINES
Official sources said that the new arms deal with Jordan was made without regard to the present cease-fire line shootings because it was deemed vital for the United States to retain influence in Amman and prevent a Jordanian-Russian arms transaction.
Mr. McCloskey said the State Department had no information on whether there had been any change in the level of Soviet arms supplies to the Arabs. He had no comment on whether the arms for Jordan were calculated to balance American shipments to Israel or Russian supplies to the radical Arab states. No progress has been made in achieving the big power limitation of the arms flow desired by President Johnson, it was noted.
The spokesman declined to specify the types of arms to be supplied Jordan, asserting that the details were now being negotiated with the Jordanian Government. In response to a question about arms for Israel, he cited the communique issued after the Johnson-Eshkol meeting in Texas as the last development on that question.
The American decision, it was learned, followed an “SOS” from King Hussein. The King reportedly emphasized that he needed a dramatic gesture by Washington to quiet growing dissent among Jordanian Army officers–especially on the eve of the visit to America of Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan.
Jordanian officers had complained that Jordan was the only nation not resupplied following the June war and it was also the Arab state with the “hottest” cease-fire line. Extreme pressures were said to have been exerted on Hussein to obtain arms from the United States or to accept Soviet offers. The State Department concluded that American influence in Amman would be retained through new U.S. arms shipments. This decision was described by official sources as the “lesser of two evils.”
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