Supporters of Israel on Capitol Hill are expressing concern that a U.S. offer to Egypt of some 700 tanks being phased out of the U.S. arms stockpile in Europe could fuel a new Middle East arms race.
The concern is that the transfer to Egypt of the M60-Al tanks, which were to be destroyed next year under the Conventional Arms Control Agreement, could set a precedent for the Soviet Union and the Western Europeans to sell more weapons to the Arab countries.
The Soviet Union is required to destroy three or four times as many weapons as the United States. The fear, a Capitol Hill source said Thursday, is that the Soviets could decide instead to provide the weapons to such Arab countries as Syria or Libya.
The Soviet tanks being destroyed are much more sophisticated than the tanks the Soviets have given the Arab countries up to now, the sources said.
The U.S. offer of the M60-A1 tanks, which are being replaced in Europe by M1 Abrams tanks, was announced Wednesday by State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler. She said the outmoded tanks are being offered to NATO allies and other friends of the United States.
“As a major non-NATO ally, Egypt is a leading candidate to receive a substantial portion of these tanks,” Tutwiler said. She said the tanks would replace Soviet-made tanks in the Egyptian stockpile and therefore would not increase the number of tanks Egypt has.
WILL IMPROVE EGYPT’S CAPABILITY
Israel has also been offered the M60-A1 tanks, but has “declined,” Tutwiler added. She said Israel is “fully aware of our intentions to provide these tanks to Egypt.”
According to the Capitol Hill source, Israel rejected the tanks, because under its restricted military budget, it did not have the funds to store them.
The tanks are being offered free of charge, except for transportation costs, the source said.
Israel usually does not oppose arms sales to Egypt, because, unlike other Arab countries, Cairo has signed a peace agreement with Jerusalem.
But the source expressed concern about the “tremendous” number of tanks being offered Egypt. While the tanks will not increase the size of the Egyptian stockpile, they will qualitatively improve Egypt’s military capacity, he said.
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