Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Monday, May 29, 2023

Kissinger, turning 100, denies delaying airlifts to Israel during Yom Kippur War

29 May 2023, 9:16 pm 6 Edit

File: Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger attends a luncheon at the US State Department in Washington, DC, on December 1, 2022. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)

File: Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger attends a luncheon at the US State Department in Washington, DC, on December 1, 2022. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)

Henry Kissinger, a giant of US diplomacy, tells Channel 12 that he did not put Israel in danger during 1973’s Yom Kippur War, despite reports that claimed he had deliberately delayed airlifts of supplies to the Jewish state.

“Nothing happened that could be interpreted in that way,” Kissinger says.

He says airlifting supplies to a country during a war is almost never done.

“This was a huge step we took. It saved Israel,” he says.

Kissinger says the airlift had been held up because the US initially thought Israel was winning the war. Logistics then took some time to work out, he says.