Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov, Soviet defense chief, will soon visit Syria, it was reported here today, It is understood that Syrian Defense Minister Khaled el-Azm had, during his recent visit in Moscow, negotiated with Marshal Zhukov an agreement to bring a top-ranking Soviet military team to Syria to help modernize the Syrian army.
In connection with Zhukov’s impending visit to Syria, a spokesman of the Israeli Foreign Office today said that Syria has received $120, 000, 000 worth of Soviet arms up to the end of July. and that these arms were given by Moscow to Syria at prices one-third less than the world market prices.
(The New York Times today reported from Cairo that the Soviet drive to build up the armies of Egypt, Syria and Yemen was viewed by diplomats in the Middle East as a concerted effort to establish a powerful friendly force at the back door of the West’s northern tier defenses. The Soviet Union is reported to be supplying some of the latest model MiG-19 jet fighter planes to Egypt and Syria and is sending two submarines to the Syrians as a Mediterranean supplement to the three already delivered to Egypt, the Times reports said.)
The Israeli spokesman revealed that in 1955 the Israel Government extended an invitation to two top-ranking Soviet leaders, Dmitri Shepilov, the since-deposed Soviet Foreign Minister, and Anastasi Mikoyan, Soviet Deputy Premier, The two declined the invitation with the excuse they could not fit such a trip into their schedules.
The Israeli spokesman said that U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was ‘Very sympathetic and understanding” when Israel Ambassador Abba Eban brought to his attention the question of Soviet arms being supplied to Syria. He said that Israel has no confirmation as yet of the report that Syria has obtained two submarines from Russia. However, he warned that an accumulation of arms has a tendency to culminate in disturbance of peace. At the same time he made it clear that Israel does not think there is immediate danger of a blowup, “because time is required by Syria to learn to use the newly supplied Soviet arms.
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