Wilson Rejects Request to Reconsider Decision Not to Sell Chieftain Tanks to Israel

Prime Minister Harold Wilson rejected today a request by a group of Labor MPs who had asked him to reconsider a decision not to sell Chieftain tanks to Israel. The Issue has led Israel to challenge Britain’s Impartiality in the Big Four efforts to find an approach for a Middle East settlement. Replying to a letter signed by more than 80 members of a Labor Friends of Israel Parliamentary group, Mr. Wilson said he saw no evidence that Israel “is now at a military disadvantage” or was likely to be “in the foreseeable future.” Mr. Wilson added that the British Government kept its arms supplies to Israel and other Mideast countries “under close and constant review” and that he agreed with the MPs that Israel’s military superiority was “not necessarily permanent” but that in the “present circumstances I can see no Justification for any change in the implementation of our policy” regarding sale of the Chieftain tanks.

The Prime Minister also declared that in any decision on supplying arms to Mideast combatants, the British Government had “to take carefully into account” the effect of decisions on arms supply on the Mideast power balance. Raymond Fletcher, chairman of the parliamentary group, said its members agreed with the British Government’s general policy on keeping a Mideast power balance but that they believed this balance had been upset to the disadvantage of Israel. He cited the seizure of power in Libya by an anti-Israel revolutionary regime, the change in French policy in the Middle East, the buildup of Soviet military aid to Egypt and President Nixon’s refusal to sell more warplanes to Israel. He said the parliamentary group would meet on April 15 to consider Mr. Wilson’s reply.