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Aramco Chief Raps Anti-boycott Legislation Pending in Congress

January 26, 1977
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The anti-boycott legislation now under discussion in the U.S. Congress was sharply condemned here by Frank Jungers, chairman of ARAMCO. He told the Arab London-based magazine “Events” that “such laws will not harm ARAMCO or Saudi Arabia as much as they will harm the United States and its economy.” Companies operating in the Middle East, Jungers continued in his interview with the magazine, “will shift their operations from the U.S. to Western Europe or elsewhere.”

As an American citizen, he stated, “I must condemn any laws that are opposed to American interests. I find no justification for them–the Arab boycott is a political measure similar to the U.S. boycotts of Cuba, North Korea and China.” Jungers said he saw no reason to raise the matter right now “because the Arab boycott was 25 years old.” The oil company chief complained that Americans are being forced into becoming part of the Arab-Israeli dispute.

He charged that “Zionist elements are projecting the Arab boycott as a racialist act aimed against the Jewish people. That is not true. Prince Fahed of Saudi Arabia told me that the boycott will end when the Arab-Israeli dispute is over.” Jungers promised “I’ll do my best to ensure that American legislators realize that anti-boycott laws will not end the Arab-Israeli dispute but would only intensify it.”

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