Word: embargo
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...Thaw. Most important, the pipe-for-gas trade indicates that trade relations between Bonn and Moscow are less and less influenced by the cold war. Seven years ago, the Germans had arranged to sell pipe to the Soviet Union, but the deal was blocked by the NATO strategic-goods embargo. Nikita Khrushchev was so enraged that he thumped his fist on a table and roared: "Even pants buttons can be called strategic goods. How are soldiers to hold their pants up without buttons...
...tankers, the radar forests of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, television cameramen and even Italian fishermen. From a distance, the world watched with emotions ranging from amusement to outrage. In a twist on old-fashioned gunboat diplomacy, Israel had retrieved $10 million worth of naval vessels, circumventing France's embargo on arms sales to the Jewish state and producing a political uproar that had several capitals buzzing...
...when Paris discovered that the gunboats and their Israeli crews had taken French leave of their fitting-out berths in Cherbourg. The 240-ton, 148-ft. boats had been ordered by the Israelis before Charles de Gaulle, seeking to enhance French influence among the Arab states, tightened his arms embargo on Israel in January 1969. Once the gunboats were completed, the French allowed Israeli sailors to take them out of port, but only on familiarization runs and with limited fuel...
Five of the first seven boats had sailed from Cherbourg before De Gaulle's embargo was totally invoked following Israel's commando raid on the Beirut airport. The Israelis, who are familiar with such situations (see box following page), had no trouble getting the other two. They sailed the pair out of Cherbourg on a trial run, as they had done in the past, carrying a limited fuel supply. Just beyond the territorial limit. Israeli planes appeared overhead and parachuted enough additional fuel for the long run to Haifa...
Corporate Legerdemain. The last five boats, for which Israel had already paid $10 million, involved a more complex operation. For a while after Pompidou's election in June, the Israelis were hopeful that he would end De Gaulle's embargo and release the boats. The new French President not only kept the arms ban in force but actively promoted French rapprochement with the Arabs. There are reports that he is preparing to sell 50 Mirage planes and 200-AMX tanks to Libya; U.S. officials claim that he may even sell 50 Mirages originally destined for Israel...