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“If the Israeli government needs this increased security, we are going to help - and in time”
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BERLIN,
November 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Following the U.S.’s
footsteps, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in an interview
released Tuesday, November 26, his government plans to grant Israel’s
request for U.S.-made Patriot anti-missile missiles, saying it was the
country’s “historic and moral duty.”
The
United States has reportedly offered Israel a new generation of Patriot
missiles. The new Patriots specially designed to destroy Scud missiles
in flight would be placed under the control of U.S. troops deployed in
Israel, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Quoting
high-ranking officials, however, the Israeli Public Television claimed
Israel would allegedly decline the offer on the grounds that it already
had Hetz (arrow) anti-missile missiles developed in cooperation with the
United States to face up to a possible Iraqi attack.
Since
August the Israeli occupation army has had Hetz batteries deployed north
of Tel Aviv in case of an American war on Iraq.
On
November 7, an Israeli-American team successfully tested the latest
Patriot model, an Israeli military source said. The missiles have been
deployed to protect Israel's nuclear plant at Dimona in the Negev.
Speaking
to the Die Zeit weekly, Schroeder said that “if the
Israeli government needs this increased security, we are going to help -
and in time.”
“Our
historic and moral duty demands it,” he said in reference to the
Israeli request to supply the missiles.
He
said the Patriot system was purely for defensive purposes.
“It
offers protection against missile attacks. The security of the state of
Israel and its citizens is extremely important to us.”
German
government sources said earlier Tuesday that the country had three
Patriot systems which it could supply to Israel.
The
German military has some 30 systems in use in various missions including
peacekeeping, and six others which are operational but in storage.
An
Israeli defense spokesman said the request was more than a year old and
was unrelated to the current crisis in Iraq.
“Israel
offered to purchase a stock of Patriot anti-missile missiles which had
been superseded” by a later upgraded version of the U.S.-made missile,
the spokesman said.
German
Defense Minister Peter Struck said Berlin had agreed “in principle”
to the Israeli request two years ago.
But
the request was renewed last week, and Berlin is now examining “the
arrangements and the date for the supply of the weapons.”
During
the 1991 Gulf War, the German government, then led by chancellor Helmut
Kohl, granted an identical Israel request for Patriots, ground-to-air
defense systems which can be targeted to shoot down incoming missiles.
A
defense ministry spokesman said he did not know if Israel wanted to buy
or merely lease the Patriots.
U.N.
inspectors are currently visiting Iraq to study its alleged program of
weapons of mass destruction.
The
United States has threatened to wage war on President Saddam Hussein’s
regime if it does not fully declare and abandon such weapons, which it
claims it does not have.
During
the Gulf War to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, Israel was pounded by
dozens of Scud missiles from Iraq despite the presence of earlier-model
Patriot batteries.
Paul
Spiegel, the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, earlier
urged the Berlin government to approve the request, which he told the Tagesspiegel
daily would have been “inconceivable” 20 years ago.
“It
is another step toward normality between the two countries,” he said.
