Report: US Furious at Israel Equipment Transfer to China

[Jesus Malverde]

1. New USA-Israeli Crisis Involving Defense Exports to China

The head of the DECA at the IMOD is expected to resign after the U.S. expressed it`s anger over the deal

Another crisis in USA-Israeli relations involving the selling of advanced technologies by Israel to China: the Head of the Defense Export Control Agency (DECA) at IMOD, Meir Shalit, is expected to announce his resignation this week owing to the transfer of an advanced technological device to a european company, which then transfered it to China.

Shalit has returned this weekend from a trip to the USA, where he officially explained to the Americans how the aforesaid Israeli export ended up in China. According to findings in Israel, the technology was sold to a european company who transfered it to China.

Both the USA and Israel fear that the advanced technology in question has been leaked by China to Iran. The new affair, revealed here for the first time, is not connected to last week's revelations, based on documents leaked by a former employee of the NSA, according to which the USA had eavesdropped on senior Israeli officials.

However, this is not the first time that USA-Israeli relations are marred in connection with the transfer of advanced technologies to China. In the late 1990s, the Americans became enraged at Israel owing to a transaction sanctioned by the Director General of the Israel Ministry of Defense at the time, Major-General (res.) Ilan Biran, involving the selling of the Falcon surveillance aircraft to China. Israel was forced to cancel the transaction and even pay damages to the Chinese in the amount of about US$ 300 million.

http://www.israeldefense.com/?CategoryID=483&ArticleID=2648