Israel’s list of defensive arms which was submitted last week to the State Department is now being studied by the Department of Defense and other United States agencies concerned, it was announced here today by a State Department spokesman.
The spokesman, Lincoln White, refused to reveal the types and amounts of arms requested by Israel. Asked to comment on reports that Israel’s request included between 40 and 50 jet aircraft, he said the United States Government does not normally release details of such military requests and was asked by Israel to refrain from doing so in this case.
The total value, at actual market prices, of Communist arms being supplied to Egypt is now estimated at one-fourth of a billion dollars, according to a reliable source. Fearful that arms of such magnitude might produce an irrestible incentive for attack by Egypt, Israel authorities are anxiously awaiting action by the U.S. Government on their arms list.
Meanwhile, the State Department announced that the United States will establish “military and political liaison” with the nations of the Baghdad Pact linking Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Britain. The announcement was regarded here as a preliminary step to United States adherence to the Baghdad pact. The powers concerned with that pact will meet in Baghdad tomorrow.
Israel views the Baghdad pact as unsound and unrealistic because, through exclusion of Israel, it does not view the area as a whole. It is potentially dangerous to Israel because the pact provides for the free grant of Western munitions to Iraq despite that country’s refusal to conclude an armistice with Israel and continued violent anti-Jewish attitude. It is recalled in Israel circles that where Iraq and Turkey signed an accord which became the basis for the present pact, Turkey agreed to an anti-Israel clause demanded by Iraq.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
