U.S. Reassures Israel on Raid : ‘Self-Defense’ Bombing Didn’t Violate Arms Pact

Secretary of State George P. Shultz has assured Israel that its raid on Tunisia last week did not violate the U.S. ban on the offensive use of American-supplied arms and will not seek any punitive action, diplomatic sources said today.

The assurance, according to the sources, came in a telephone call Saturday night from Shultz to Israeli Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who was in New York.

Shultz told Shamir that the United States has determined that the bombing raid on Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters conformed to the U.S. definition of self-defense, as required under the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, the sources said. U.S.-supplied F-15s and Boeing 707 refueling tankers were used in the raid near Tunis last Tuesday.

If the United States had found that the air strike violated the export law, it could have suspended further shipments of aircraft or other weapons to Israel.

The sources said that during the conversation, Shamir protested the U.S. abstention on the U.N. Security Council vote Friday, in which Israel was censured for the raid.

Shultz, according to the sources, said the United States was concerned about the reaction in the Arab world to the raid, and the initial defense of it by the White House and State Department.