US 'arming Israel'

2006-07-23 14:38

Washington - The United States is expediting a shipment of precision bombs to Israel from an arms deal struck last year amid the Jewish state's ongoing assault on Lebanon, a US official said Saturday.

A decision to rush the delivery of the weapons following an Israeli request was made around the time Israel began pounding Lebanon by air and sea on July 12 after the capture of two Israeli soldiers by the Hezbollah militia, the official said.

"It's part of an arms sale that was made in 2005," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The official said the shipment "has either been made or is in the process of being delivered" but refused to specify whether it was being delivered by air or by sea.

Last year's arms deal allows Israel - which agreed to purchase about one billion dollars in US military equipment in 2005, according to a congressional report - to tap into the package depending on need.

It was not immediately clear if Israel requested the new shipments following the start of the Lebanon campaign or while it was still in the peak of an air offensive in the Palestinian Gaza Strip on its southern border.

The US official told AFP the shipment was negotiated by Israeli officials with the state department and other agencies that have also refused to make public comment, highlighting the sensitivity of the decision.

"We do not, under a law, disclose sensitive information about foreign military sales," a Pentagon spokesperson said.

"Disclosure of when weapons were shipped or if they were shipped ... gets into the order of battle of the country to which they were being sold," the Pentagon spokesperson added.

A state department official said: "We are not making any comment on this at all." The White House referred questions to the Pentagon and state department.

The story was first reported by The New York Times. A US official told AFP the paper received confirmation of the rushed shipment on Friday.

The Times said the decision to expedite weapons was made with relatively little debate within the administration of President George W Bush.

But it noted the disclosure threatened to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran's efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.

Israel's request for rush delivery of the satellite- and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers and as an indication that Israel still had a long list of targets in Lebanon to strike, The New York Times noted.

The US official refused to describe in detail the size and contents of the shipment but confirmed that they included precision guided bombs.

An arms-sale package approved last year authorizes Israel to purchase from the United States as many as 100 GBU-28s, which are 2 268kg laser-guided bombs intended to destroy concrete bunkers.

Israel has already used huge bombs to attempt to destroy the bunker of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah without succeeding to eliminate the Shiite militia chief.

The package also provides for satellite-guided munitions, The New York Times said.

One US official said normal procedures usually did not include rushing deliveries within days of a request. That was done because Israel is a close ally in the midst of hostilities, the official told the Times.

A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington told the Times: "We have been using precision-guided munitions in order to neutralize the military capabilities of Hezbollah and to minimize harm to civilians.

"As a rule, however, we do not comment on Israel's defence acquisitions."

- AFP