Israel sold Argentina arms during Falklands War against UK
A new report has revealed that the Israeli regime supplied Argentina with weapons during the Falklands War between Britain and Buenos Aires in 1982. http://www.presstv.com/detail/239539.html
According to the report, Argentine pilots have spoken for the first time of a
secret mission that took them to the Occupied Palestinian Territories to seek
out weapons during the conflict.
The report comes as Argentina and Britain commemorate the 30th anniversary of
the Falklands War.
This year marked 30 years since the first significant events of the war - which
claimed the lives of 258 British and 649 Argentine troops - including the
sinking of the General Belgrano, an Argentine warship.
On April 2, 1982, Argentina had invaded the Falkland Islands and, just days
later, a team of seven civilian pilots was summoned by the Argentine air force
and sworn to secrecy.
They were to aid their country's war effort by flying twice to Tel Aviv, to load
up planes with Israeli weapons and artillery, to be used by troops on the ground
against the British.
Flying a non-military Boeing 707 that belonged to national airline Aerolneas
Argentinas, Ramn Arce, head of the group, left Buenos Aires for Tel Aviv, via
the Canary Islands, on April 7.
"When we landed at Ben-Gurion, a committee of Argentines and Israelis met us,"
Arce told Clar?n, an Argentine national newspaper, breaking his 30-year silence.
"They told us they had been waiting."
It was the first time an Aerol?neas Argentinas plane had touched down in Israel.
Nobody was to know, until now, that it would return to Buenos Aires filled with
weaponry.
Jorge Prelooker, now 75, was pilot of the second flight to Tel Aviv. "The
British couldn't attack as we were flying non-military aircraft with civilians
aboard," he said. "There would have been international uproar had we been shot
down."
Prelooker explained how the flights to Israel were also used as reconnaissance.
"They told us to look out for British warships as we crossed the Atlantic Ocean
and report back to Buenos Aires," he said.
Among the weaponry that was loaded onto the planes in Tel Aviv were air-to-air
missiles, anti-tank mines, mortars, bombs and machine guns.
The pilots also embarked on four similar flights to Tripoli, Libya, where the
military dictatorship that took Argentina to war had struck up an arms deal with
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
In addition to the operation, Israel collaborated with the dictatorship in
Argentina during the Falklands War by sending arms via Peru so that the British
would not find out.
The then prime minister, Menachem Begin, agreed to supply equipment - including
gas masks, radar systems and fuel tanks for bombers - to Leopoldo Galtieri, head
of the military junta, reportedly because of a long-standing hatred of the UK.
Meanwhile, Peruvian president Fernando Belaunde Therry authorised the transport
of arms from Israel to Lima and Callao, a major Pacific port, before their
transfer to Buenos Aires aboard Aerol?neas Argentinas aircraft.
Crucially, the Peruvian air force signed blank purchase orders during the 74-day
conflict, enabling the Argentine dictatorship to request whatever it needed from
Israel.
MOL/JR/HE