Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz held talks in Washington with
Defense Department officials last week in an effort meant to end tensions between the
two countries over Israeli defense and security relations with Beijing.
Since July 2004, the Pentagon has barred defense officials from visiting
Israel in protest of its military relationship with China. The ban was
prompted by an Israeli project to refurbish Harpy attack unmanned aerial
vehicles bought by Beijing in 1997. Israel has agreed to suspend the
project.
On Wednesday, Mofaz met Vice President Richard Cheney, Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security
Advisor Stephen Hadley in an effort to resolve the dispute over China. Mofaz
was left the United States on Thursday, Middle East Newsline reported.
Over the last six months, Israel has cooperated with a joint
Israeli-U.S. group established in 2003 to ensure transparency in
Israeli-Chinese defense and security relations. The panel was said to have
reviewed more than 100 alleged Israeli transactions with China.
The Pentagon has boycotted several senior Israeli defense officials, including
Defense Ministry director-general Amos Yaron, and delayed military exports
to the Jewish state.
In an attempt to assuage the Pentagon, Mofaz issued a directive that
banned Israeli defense and security firms from visiting China or discussing
business with that country unless they received written approval from the
Defense Ministry. Last week, Mofaz met about 50 representatives of Israel's
defense industry to inform them of the new regulation.
Israeli officials said the Pentagon sent a list of 500 questions
regarding suspected Israeli defense and security deals with China. They said
more than 90 percent of the questions have been answered and relayed to Lisa
Bronson, deputy undersecretary of defense for technology security policy and
counterproliferation.
"China has obtained the Israeli Harpy attack drone," the Center for
Strategic Budgetary Assessments said in a March 2005 report. "Moreover,
China also has co-developed with TAAS Industries of Israel the air-launched
Delilah anti-radiation cruise missile, a weapon with a 54-kilogram payload
and 400-kilometer range."
The Israeli daily Haaretz said Israeli arms sales to China have dropped
significantly since the cancellation of the Phalcon airborne early-warning
aircraft in 2001, a project that had been expected to reach $1 billion.
Haaretz said Israel sold $35 million worth of arms to China since the
termination of the Phalcon project.
Officials said the Pentagon ban on Israel's Defense Ministry has
affected U.S. arms export deliveries as well as several programs, such as
the Joint Strike Fighter and Future Combat Systems. At the same time,
Pentagon officials, including Defense Undersecretary Douglas Feith, have
refused to meet the Israeli Defense Ministry's purchasing mission in New
York.
Mofaz acknowledged that the U.S. tensions regarding China have not been
resolved. Mofaz said Yaron, accused by Feith of having concealed the Harpy
upgrade deal in 2004, could not accompany the defense minister in his trip
to the United States.
Still, over the last two weeks, Israeli officials have reported a thaw
in the chilly defense relations between Jerusalem and Washington. On March
29, a delegation of Lockheed Martin leaders held talks with Israeli defense
officials in Tel Aviv and visited Israeli contractors. Lockheed Martin has
been the key U.S. defense supplier of Israel as well as the prime contractor
of the JSF.
"If there were problems would I have come here?" Lockheed Martin
president Robert Stevens asked.
