A compromise removing 200 Maverick “D” anti-armor missiles from the proposed $1.9 billion arms sale to Kuwait has been worked out by members of Congress, Reagan administration officials and representative of U.S. Jewish groups.
Participants in a White House meeting Friday also agreed to increase from 100 to 300 the number of Maverick “G” anti-bunker missiles the tiny Persian Gulf sheikdom will receive. Pro-Israel sources said that the anti-bunker missiles are not seen as a danger to Israel, while the more powerful anti-tank missiles could pose a threat.
The administration last year proposed, but later withdrew, plans to sell 1,600 “D” missiles to Saudi Arabia. Members of Congress and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee worried that a similar sale to Kuwait could lead the Saudis to seek those weapons again.
The “D” missiles have never been sold to any Persian Gulf state, with the exception of Bahrain, which has 25 of them. The United States also has not supplied the missiles to Israel.
The Senate voted July 8 to bar the sale of both types of Maverick missiles to Persian Gulf states for the upcoming year, but pro-Israel analysts expect that provision to be modified or eliminated in a House-Senate conference committee.
Kuwait is still earmarked to receive 40 F/A-18 fighter planes; 400 laser-guided bombs; 200 cluster bombs; 200 Sparrow missiles; 120 Sidewinder missiles; 40 Harpoon missiles, 400 laser-guided bombs and 200 cluster bombs.
JEWISH GROUPS INVOLVED
The compromise was worked out Friday by members of Congress; Lt. Col. Colin Powell, President Reagan’s national security adviser; AIPAC; and Morris Abram, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Kuwait has not yet accepted the modification. The Kuwaiti Embassy did not return phone calls Monday.
Some additional assurances reached Friday are that the Mavericks cannot be delivered until all of the F/A-18s are operable; Kuwait cannot use air-refueling equipment to extend the range of the F/A-18s to reach Israel; and the aircraft cannot be based outside Kuwait.
The deal was hammered out just over a week before the Aug. 7 deadline Congress has to vote against the sale. If there is no such vote by Sunday, the sale automatically goes through.
More than 140 House members co-sponsored a resolution in opposition to the sale, among them Rep. Dante Fascell (D-Fla.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. But no resolution to block the entire sale has been introduced in the senate.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
