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Granting Israel Patriot Missiles “Historical & Moral Duty”: Schroeder

“If the Israeli government needs this increased security, we are going to help - and in time”

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“Israel offered to purchase a stock of Patriot anti-missile missiles which had been superseded” by a later upgraded version of the U.S.-made missile, the spokesman said.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.

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Palestine:

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Israel to Receive New Patriot Missiles, Asks U.S. for $10 Billion

Israel Kills Child, Abducts 9 Palestinians, Raids Central Gaza

Syrian FM Rejects U.S. Pressure to Close Palestinian Jihad Office