International ‘U.S. worries about possible anti-Sadat coup led to jet sales’

Press, 21 February 1978, Page 8

International ‘U.S. worries about possible anti-Sadat coup led to jet sales’

NZPA-Reuter

Miami

American worries about the possibility’ of a military’ coup in Egypt were a factor in President Jimmy Carter’s decision to sell 50 fighter-bombers to that country, according to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (Mr Andrew Young).

"The only thing that can be dangerous to the United States and to Israel right now might be the overthrow of the Egyptian President (Mr Anwar Sadat) by his own military forces,” Mr Young told a campaign fund-raising dinner.

“And I think that’s the reason that the President made the concession of promising to send planes to Egypt.” He said he had heard from Egyptians at a dinner last Monday, the night before the announcement of Mr Carter’s decision to sell Egypt the 50 Fss, that President Sadat would be in trouble with Egypt’s armed forces if the United States did not respond to his requests for military aid.

Mr Young said he did not know whether the possibility of a coup was Mr Carter’s prime reason for approving the aircraft sale, but added: “I think that’s the big problem.”

The Israeli Prime Minister (Mr Menachem Begin) has accused the American Secretary of State (Mr Cyrus Vance) of hardening Egypt’s stand in Middle East peace efforts by saying that Israeli settlements in Sinai should not exist.

“That statement should not have been made, because we are in the midst of negotiations,” he told an American television interviewer.

During the interview recorded in Jerusalem, Mr Begin said that Mr Vance's suggestion that Israel dis-

mantle its Sinai settlements is in effect asking Israel to make a desert and cal) it peace. “We have different concepts about peace and therefore if such a statement is being made, I think it makes the stand of Egypt harder,” he said.

Mr Begin sharply criticised President Carter for linking the supply of warplanes to Israel with sales to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. President Carter has proposed selling 90 Fl 5 and Fl 6 I fiehter planes to Israel, together with 60 Flss fori Saudi Arabia and the 50 less: sophisticated F5Es to Egypt.

The Israeli Prime Minister I said the planes should have ibeen supplied to Israel a long time ago under a longstanding United States commitment. In Tel Aviv, an Israel Army spokesman has denied a Beirut report that Israeli forces have captured several villages in south Lebanon. Palestinian sources in Beirut said three villages near the Israeli-Lebanese border had been seized by Israeli and Right-wing Lebanese forces. The Israeli military spokesman said the report was “totally untrue.” In Beirut, Palestinian commandos have said that they were responsible for a bomb blast at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on Sunday. The Israeli police said a man was killed and at least one person injured in the blast. They said another bomb was found on the campus and defused. Israeli security forces arrested about 20 Arabs from the occupied West Bank of the Jordan after the explosion, military sources i have said. The sources said the de-; tainees were relatives of the] two casualties. Observers said it indicated that police investigators were now convinced the two, a man and a woman, planted the explosive charge which apparently went off too early.