Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said the joint commission overseeing the region approved the shipment last month, but Georgia denied that.
This could explain the conflicting testimony from Robert C. McFarlane, the former national security adviser, and Donald T. Regan, the White House chief of staff, over whether the President approved the shipment.
But Israeli officials confirmed a report in the Haaretz newspaper that the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, approved the shipment in his meeting Saturday evening with Mr. Abbas.
Now the government has approved the shipment of the 68-ton tanks to Saudi Arabia even as the image of Saudi tanks rolling into Bahrain to help suppress the protests there remains fresh in the public's mind.
having approved the shipment of several million dollars worth of conventional weapons to Jordan, which, our diplomatats are persuaded right now is in need of bolstering its defenses against Israel and other Arab nations.
Amidst daily reports of violence spilling over the country's borders and into neighboring Lebanon and Turkey, we learn that NATO has approved the shipment of Patriot missiles to Turkey to help it protect its border, and simultaneously, there is renewed talk that Bashar al-Assad's regime may use its chemical weapons in a last-ditch attempt to hold on to power.
But Mr. Haughey's career was set back in 1970 when, as finance minister, he was charged with being involved in a plot to obtain weapons from Europe and smuggle them across the border to the I.R.A. His lawyers argued successfully that the minister of defense had approved the shipment.
In August of 1943, President Roosevelt approved the shipment of a secret cargo of mustard gas via SS Harvey.
Later he says "I don't remember" when asked about approving the shipment.
August: The President approves the shipment of arms by Israel to Iran, according to his initial statement to the Tower Commission.
