The Reagan Administration may have gotten itself off the hook about having to decide this week whether to resume shipment of the F-16 fighter-bomber jets to Israel.
The U.S. has ordered a grounding of all F-16s throughout the world, including the 53 now in Israel, until it can repair a “mechanical problem” discovered in the planes. “If you can’t fly them, you can’t deliver them,” a Pentagon spokesman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today.
The Administration has said it would make a decision on the deliveries of the planes before the next group of four planes were due to be flown to Israel. This next delivery date is believed to be Friday. The Administration held up delivery on four F-16s to Israel after Israel’s June 7 strike against Iraq’s nuclear reactor. Six more planes scheduled for delivery in July were embargoed after the Israeli attack on Palestinian terrorist headquarters in Beirut July 17.
There have been some reports that the Administration wants to hold up delivery until after Premier Menachem Begin meets with President Reagan in Washington in September. State Department deputy spokesman Alan Romburg refused to comment on this today. He said Reagan would make a decision when it is necessary to make the decision.
The Administration is not entirely off the hook. The first of the 15 F-15s Israel has ordered reportedly is due to be delivered to Israel tomorrow but the Administration has left the impression that they would not be delivered until it has decided to lift its embargo on the F-16s.
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.
