The United States Government has approved the sale of 18 modern army tanks to Saudi Arabia. This was learned today and confirmed by the State Department. The tanks are aboard the S.S. James Monroe which sails tomorrow from Brooklyn, N.Y. for Saudi Arabia. They were sold to Saudi Arabia under a reimbursable agreement signed by the United States and Saudi Arabia in 1951 Other heavy arms have been ordered by Saudi Arabia. Approval is pending.
State Department spokesman Lincoln White said Saudi Arabia applied for the tanks last spring and that the United States approved the order a few months ago. He said the tanks “are intended for training purposes and will be used in connection with the United States training mission now in Saudi Arabia.”
Officials of the Defense Department said they were satisfied with Saudi Arabian assurances that the tanks would be used only for training, defensive and internal security purposes. Neither State Department nor Defense Department authorities would comment on the recent Saudi Arabian adherence to an anti-Israel military pact linking that country with Egypt and Syria.
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