93. Memorandum of Conversation1
SUBJECT
- Resumption of Arms Deliveries
PARTICIPANTS
- Foreign Minister Ahmad al-Bishti of Libya
- Ambassador Fathi Abidia, Libyan Ambassador
- The Secretary
- Ambassador Trimble, Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs
- Mr. Sacksteder, AFN
The Secretary told Foreign Minister Bishti that he hoped we could soon clear up the question of arms for our friends.2 Unfortunately, the [Page 143] Senate-House Conference Committee on the Foreign Aid Bill had been quarreling for a month over this question. This is a reflection of the serious concern of certain members of Congress with our military assistance policy which goes back to the India-Pakistan conflict of two years ago when both parties used U.S.-supplied arms against each other. The Secretary said that we hope we shall soon be able to go ahead with our agreement with Libya.
Foreign Minister Bishti replied that he appreciated the Secretary’s observations and was confident that we would do what we could to help our friends.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 7 LIBYA. Confidential. Drafted by Sacksteder and approved in S on October 18. The conversation was held in the Secretary’s office at the Department of State.↩
- As part of the U.S. decision to resume limited and selective arms shipments to Israel and moderate Arab states, telegram 58945 to Rabat, Tunis, and Tripoli, October 24, authorized the Embassy in Tripoli to inform the Libyan Government of U.S. willingness to proceed with the cash sale agreed to in May 1967 of 10 F–5s, half to be delivered in July 1968 and the remainder by December 1968. The United States was also prepared to resume shipments under existing grant and sales programs of equipment scheduled for delivery within the following 60 days, but the Embassy was reminded that the U.S. ability to go beyond this would depend not only on the FY 1968 African ceiling, but also on further Arab-Israeli developments. (Ibid., DEF 19–8 US–MOR)↩