U.S. lifts ban on arms to Israel

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33942, 8 September 1975, Page 13

U.S. lifts ban on arms to Israel

(N.Z. Press Assn—Copyright) JERUSALEM, September 7.

The United States has lifted its ban on longterm arms deals with Israel, imposed after the failure of Dr Henry Kissinger’s Middle East peace effort last March, Israeli Government sources have reported.

The removal of the restriction appeared to be the first fruit for Israel of the interim accord, negotiated by Dr Kissinger, that it signed with Egypt last week. There was no official statement, but the sources said Washington had cancelled the ban at the weekend. The arms in question were Fl 6 warplanes, Lance ground-to-ground missiles and laserguided bombs, the sources said. SUSI4O4m order The handling of Israel’s re-' quests for these arms had been transferred to Washington as soon as the ban was lifted. Renegotiations had already resumed. The weapons restrictions were part of the reassessment of Middle East policy ordered by Washington after the collapse of talks in March. Israel took the move as a United States cam-

paign to blame Israel for Dr Kissinger’s failure. Israel never publicises the quantities of arms it buys, but it says it has asked for SUSI4O4m worth of United States military aid this fiscal year.

Israeli leaders said in Jewish New Year radio interviews yesterday that there was no guarantee that the interim agreement signed this week with Egypt would bring calm to the region. Fatah threat The Prime Minister (Mr Rabin) said he assumed that the Soviet Union would attempt to undermine the agreement, and the Defence Minister (Mr Shimon Peres) said that Israel would continue to strike at Arab guerrillas in their bases within Lebanon. In Beirut, Fatah, the largest Palestinian commando organisation, has declared that the Palestinian armed struggle will continue in spite of the Israeli-Egyptian interim peace agreement. The statement, issued after a special meeting of Fatah’s central committee headed by its leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, said: “Our armed struggle will continue forcefully and violently, and will ndt permit any country to bargain on the rights of our people or act on their behalf.”