U.S. cancels exercise with Israel
Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Thursday, May 24, 2001
WASHINGTON — The United States has cancelled a military exercise
with Israel amid concern that American soldiers would be attacked by
Palestinian guerrillas.
Pentagon officials said the exercise was cancelled after consultations
with the State Department. The exercise, called Noble Shirley, was to have
taken place in Israel's Negev desert in July.
Officials said the exercise was cancelled on Tuesday after Israel's use
of F-16 warplanes to bomb Palestinian Authority security installations on
May 18. On Sunday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appealed for Israel not
to use the U.S.-made aircraft to bomb Palestinian targets.
The exercise was to have included thousands of soldiers from the 24th
Marine Expeditionary Unit. The unit has been on the USS Kearsarge in the
Mediterranean Sea.
"We were concerned over Palestinian attacks on U.S. marines in Israel,"
a U.S. official said. "The idea of having a military exercise with Israel
right now was also not the right thing to do."
Pentagon spokesman Craig Quigley said a formal announcement had not been
made to stage an exercise with Israel. But Quigley acknowledged that
exercises are cancelled for a range of reasons.
"We have cancelled exercises in the past when we felt that that was
simply the right thing to do, the appropriate thing to do, given world
events of the moment," Quigley said. "And we'll continue to look at that,
and we could take that action in the future."
Arab allies of the United States have criticized the Israeli use of the
F-16 and Arab-American groups have called for an end of U.S. arms sales to
the Jewish state. U.S. officials said that at this point the protests would
not affect planned weapons deliveries to Israel.
Thursday, May 24, 2001
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