A top State Department official admitted today that he was wrong when he told a House International Relations subcommittee yesterday that Israel has no objection to the proposed sale of arms by the United States to Saudi Arabia. Department spokesman Frederick Brown told reporters that Philip Habib. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, had testified that Israel had not objected. But today, Habib said that he was “simply misinformed and he wants to set the record straight.”
“They (the Israelis) have indicated their objection to the sale,” Brown reported Habib as saying. There was no immediate indication that the State Department was sending a correction for the record to the committee.
Habib made his erroneous statement when he was asked by Dante Fascell (D.Fla.), chairman of the subcommittee on International Political and Military Affairs, whether Israel objected to the arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Habib replied, “no.” When Fascell asked him if he was sure of his answer, Habib consulted with Departmental aides accompanying him and again replied in the negative.
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