Defense Chiefs Cheney, Arens Meet : First Talks Since Hard-Line Israeli Government Formed

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney met today with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens in the first high-level talks between the two countries since establishment of a hard-line Israeli government.

At the same time, the State Department announced that Secretary of State James A. Baker III will meet Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy in Washington on Aug. 9 or 10.

The hasty meeting with Cheney, announced Thursday in Jerusalem and Washington, was set up shortly after Arens was named defense minister last month, a Defense Department spokesman said.

The Pentagon discussions and next month’s meeting appeared to signal a slight warming of relations between the two countries, which have been strained since Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, leader of the rightist Likud bloc, balked at Baker’s plan for a dialogue with Palestinians to prepare for Palestinian elections.

While Cheney and Arens talked at a Pentagon lunch, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler also faced questions about the postponement of a scheduled meeting of a joint committee that coordinates the nearly $2 billion in U.S. military aid to Israel.

Tutwiler denied the move was a slap at Shamir’s new government.

“The postponement was an agreement between the United States government and the Israeli government. As you know, we are in the midst of a budget summit and there’s a great deal of work associated with the summit negotiations,” she said.

“As a result of that, we’ve postponed the annual joint security assistant planning meeting and have mutually agreed with Israel to hold it in September to give us more time to prepare.”

Cheney and Arens were not expected to discuss Middle East peace efforts, leaving that for Baker and Levy. The United States is still awaiting a definitive Israeli answer to its proposals to start a peace dialogue with Palestinians.

The Pentagon discussions are the first at the ministerial level between Israel and the United States since formation of a right-wing Israeli government in June.

Arens initiated his visit when Cheney contacted him to congratulate him on being named defense minister, a Pentagon spokesman said.

“These talks are part of a longstanding series of discussions between the United States and Israeli defence secretaries, and with other friends, about a whole range of security issues,” the spokesman added.

A Pentagon spokesman denied that the Arens-Cheney meeting was in response to any specific situation, but did not rule out discussions of the Israeli-made, U.S.-funded Arrow missile.