Possible Israel-India spysat deal

Located courtesy NMIA Zgram:

http://www.menewsline.com/stories/20...y/02_10_2.html

ISRAEL MULLS DEAL TO LEASE OFEQ-5 TO INDIA
TEL AVIV [MENL]
[10 February 2004]

Israel has been mulling an offer by India to lease the Ofeq-5
military satellite.

India proposed paying a fee for a link from Israel's new Ofeq-5
satellite, said to have a high resolution imagery of 0.5 meters.
The issue was raised during the visit by Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon to New Dehli in September.

Israel has never provided foreign access to any of its Ofeq spy
satellites, the first of which was launched in 1988. But Israeli
officials said sharp cuts in the Defense Ministry and the close
strategic relations with New Dehli have led to an Israeli review
of its policy.

India and Israel have signed a space cooperation agreement that
envisions Israeli cooperation in a range of Indian satellite
projects. India was said to have experienced obstacles in
developing advanced remote imagery payloads for its satellites.

John Savard wrote:
On 10 Feb 2004 05:52:46 -0800, (Allen Thomson)
quoted, in part:

Israel has never provided foreign access to any of its Ofeq spy
satellites, the first of which was launched in 1988. But Israeli
officials said sharp cuts in the Defense Ministry and the close
strategic relations with New Dehli have led to an Israeli review
of its policy.

Of course, neither country is very fond of the Muslim world. India's
Hindu majority has vivid recollections of the sectarian violence that
accompanied and led up to the partition of India.

Its not as if they don't have rather more recent memories of both
local muslims attacking hindus and vice versa.


John Savard
http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/index.html

--
Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++