Israel Pressed to Explain Its Iran Arms Role

Two of Israel’s leftist political parties said Sunday that they will introduce motions of no confidence in Parliament later this week, as the Israeli government comes under mounting pressure to disclose its role in President Reagan’s controversial arms sales to Iran.

The Israeli press stepped up its calls for an explanation as well, and Abba Eban, head of the parliamentary Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, demanded that an accounting be made when Foreign Minister Shimon Peres makes a scheduled appearance before the panel today.

However, top government officials continued Sunday to turn aside requests for public comment on the affair. “We as a state have nothing to gain from saying anything,” one official remarked, requesting anonymity because even that statement allegedly exceeded government policy.

Acting as Intermediary

Reagan Administration officials have said that Israel acted as an intermediary in setting up the program and as a conduit in shipping arms to Iran.

Senior Israeli officials have confirmed the reports and selectively leaked details of their role in the program, but always in a manner that allows them to deny responsibility for the accounts.

Other reports have been pieced together from information supplied by lower-level officials and others who have partial knowledge of the program.

Shipments Since ’79

The Times reported last weekend that in addition to its assistance in the Reagan Administration arms sales program, Israel has independently maintained a nearly continuous supply of weaponry to Iran’s revolutionary regime since 1979.

Operating under strict military censorship, the Israeli press has been able to publish even less information about this country’s part in the arms shipments than the Western media, a situation that has annoyed some Israeli lawmakers.

“It is a scandal that we in Parliament know nothing more about these dealings than we have read in the foreign press,” Elazar Granot, leader of the leftist Mapam party, told Reuters news agency. “If the reports are true, then it’s a terrible foreign policy blunder for which ministers should be held accountable and fired.”

Mapam and the Citizens Rights Movement have both promised to submit motions of no confidence in the government at a session of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, on Tuesday.

Eban told Israel radio that it is “intolerable” that the Knesset not be able to carry out its monitoring function. Last week, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir refused to discuss the Iran arms issue in a closed session of the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee.

However, Eban said Sunday, “every decision-making process is dangerous if it is carried out by a small group and does not undergo an evaluation by an outside authority.” He said Peres had agreed to explain the government’s policy to the committee today.

Concern over the Iran arms connection has been slow to develop here. Officials initially welcomed revelation of the Reagan program because the first reports made Israel appear as a loyal strategic ally, aiding in an effort to free U.S. hostages held by pro-Iranian elements in Lebanon.

However, as criticism has mounted in Washington, Israeli policy-makers have grown increasingly concerned that they could end up cast as villains in the affair. And independently, analysts here have raised questions about how Israel’s role fits in with its long-term concerns about such issues as combatting terrorism and the spread of Islamic fundamentalism.

A ‘Doubtful Deal’

“Anyone following the American press . . . has to reach the conclusion that the day is not far off on which we will be suspected of having dragged the President (Reagan) and the National Security Council into the doubtful deal with Iran,” the independent Yediot Aharonot newspaper said in a Sunday editorial.

“In these circumstances,” the newspaper added, “silence is a bad policy.” It urged Israeli leaders to “clarify our role in the entire affair. It would be best if this were done quickly and at our initiative, before it’s forced on us from the outside.”

A government official said today about the arms-to-Iran program: “Even here it’s not a rose. It stinks.” For example, he said, some critics are asking, “What happens if some of those arms wind up in the hands of the Hezbollah (pro-Iranian militants) in south Lebanon?”

Hezbollah fighters there are among the most active in attacking Israeli troops and their Lebanese Christian allies in Israel’s so-called “security zone,” extending up to 10 miles northward into Lebanon from the Israeli frontier.

U.S. Need for Help

This official stressed repeatedly that “all that we did on this issue was at the request of the U.S. Administration. . . . The whole affair was done because the U.S. was in a position where it needed help.”

As for the Reagan Administration’s problems with Congress over the program, this official said it is not Israel’s place to become involved.

“This was an official request of the U.S. Administration, and it’s not Israel’s business to look into whether this conformed with all U.S. regulations, whether Congress was informed, who agreed and who disagreed,” he said.