The Bush administration has begun to block arms shipments
to Israel and suspend joint programs after the two allies failed to resolve a dispute over arms sales to China.
U.S. officials said the Defense Department and Israeli representatives
were unable to draft a memorandum of understanding that would halt Israeli
weapons sales to China. They said the two sides could not agree on a
supervision mechanism for Israeli arms exports.
Israel has agreed to increase government supervision of arms exports,
the long-held turf of the Defense Ministry, Middle East Newsline reported.
But officials said the Israeli
delegation refused to accept U.S. demands for increased access to Israeli
negotiations with foreign militaries. The countries were said to have
included India and Singapore, two leading clients of Israel's defense
industry.
"This is certainly an issue that is being discussed between the United
States and Israel, and we have made our concerns about the sale and transfer
of defense equipment and technology to China known to Israel," Pentagon
spokesman Bryan Whitman said on Monday.
Whitman refused to confirm a report by the Israeli daily Haaretz that
the administration has demanded details of more than 60 military and
security deals with China. He also did not address the Pentagon boycott of
senior Israeli defense officials.
"We continue also to raise concerns with our allies, our friends and
partners and look for them to take responsible approaches to arms sales to
China, too," Whitman said. "This is broader than just Israel."
The failure to draft the MoU appeared to have heightened the crisis
between the Pentagon and Israel's Defense Ministry. The Pentagon has
boycotted high level meetings with Israeli officials since July 2004 in
wake of Israel's efforts to upgrade the Harpy unmanned aerial vehicle for
China.
Since then, the Pentagon has embarked on a process of escalating
sanctions. They included the suspension of Israeli participation in the
Joint Strike Fighter program.
Officials said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sought to resolve the crisis
during his visit to the United States in late May. They said a week after
Sharon's return, the United States informed Israel that it had been
suspended from the JSF program.
In 2005, the administration began holding up arms deliveries to Israel,
such as night-vision systems, and delayed a scheduled strategic cooperation
session. Officials said the U.S. Army has stopped relaying information on a
project to develop the Hunter-2 UAV, based on an Israeli-supplied platform.
Northrop Grumman has been the prime contractor of the project for the U.S.
Army.
The Pentagon has also refused to engage with three Israeli defense
officials. They were identified as Defense Ministry director-general Amos
Yaron, head of the ministry's New York-based procurement division Yekutiel
Mor, and Sibat arms export chief Yossi Ben-Hanan. These officials were said
to have been responsible for Israel's defense relationship with China.
Israeli defense sources said the Defense Ministry has responded to all
of the Pentagon requests and still envisions an MoU by August 2005. But they
acknowledged ministry opposition to the U.S. demands for increased
transparency of arms deals and the dismissal of the three officials.
"The Defense Ministry is holding discreet and pertinent talks with the
United States to solve the misunderstandings, which it does not believe need
to make public," an Israeli Defense Ministry statement said.
