The Jerusalem Post
Friday, July 24, 1998
Report: US Slams Israel for Selling Arrow Know-how to India
By Douglas Davis
LONDON (July 24) - The US has delivered a harshly worded letter to Israel, accusing it
of violating the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) by selling radar technology
associated with the Arrow-2 anti-missile system to India.
According to the London-based newsletter Foreign Report yesterday, American officials
also summoned Defense Ministry Director-General Ilan Biran to the US Embassy "in
order to vent their anger in person."
The Americans said that although the Arrow itself, as a defensive missile, does not
fall under the guidelines of the MTCR, its components may be used in offensive missiles,
and sales of this equipment would therefore contravene the MTCR.
The newsletter quotes sources in Washington as saying the US reprimand is a direct
outgrowth of the current strained relations between Washington and Jerusalem and places
hitherto suppressed US grievances into the public agenda.
Israeli sources have retorted that the US complaint is "hypocritical," the
newsletter says.
They reportedly assert that Washington is seeking to inhibit Israeli defense exports
for "purely selfish reasons" - to allow US defense contractors to export
technology which the US prohibits Israel from selling.
Defense Ministry spokesman Dan Weinreich did not return phone calls seeking comment
last night.
Col. Browne, India's military attache, denied the report.
"It's complete nonsense," he said. "I don't know anything about
it."
The Clinton administration said generous US funding for the Arrow project prevents
Israel from exporting any of its components without prior approval from Washington.
The Israeli sources, however, insist that the Arrow's radar was fully developed before
the Americans started contributing to the system.
The newsletter also reported that the head of Russia's security service, Nikolai
Kovalyov, who visited Israel recently with senior aides, promised to do everything
possible to block the leak of nuclear weapons technology to Iran or any other country.
During his visit Kovalyov reported on two incidents in 1997, the newsletter said.
The first involved an Iranian diplomat who was arrested in Moscow trying to buy
materials for use in missiles.
The second involved a member of an Iranian military delegation who was expelled after
trying to obtain documents about avionics technology.
Kovalyov, however, was less forthcoming about two other incidents, the newsletter
reported.
The first involved two government employees who were jailed for trying to sign an
agreement for the sale of a missile navigation system to a "foreign company;"
the second concerned a man who was arrested in St. Petersburg for trying to smuggle out of
Russia "ingredients for the production of a non-conventional weapon."
Source:
http://www.jpost.com/com/Archive/24.Jul.1998/News/Article-2.html
