Senate Majority leader Robert Dole (R. Kan.) is seeking to head off defeat of a proposed arms sale to Jordan by extending the deadline that Congress gave itself last fall for rejecting the Jordan package, according to a staff member at Dole’s office.
The extension would be the second attempt since October to avert what is expected to be a humiliating defeat for the President should a bill disapproving the proposed $1.9 billion arms package go to the floor of the House and Senate next month.
In the face of overwhelming opposition to the sale in both Houses of Congress, senior Republican leaders worked out a resolution during the last session of Congress barring the President from selling Jordan the arms before March 1, unless “direct and meaningful peace negotiations between Israel and Jordan are underway.” If no resolution opposing the sale is passed by that time, the Administration can grant Jordan the requested arms.
Last month, while Congress was still on winter recess, Sen. Richard Lugar (R. Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, warned that the “faltering ” Middle East peace process would probably lead to the introduction of a disapproval resolution early on in the new session of Congress that began this week.
ARMS SALE EXPECTED TO BE REJECTED
A staff member at Lugar’s office told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency earlier this week that he expected the arms sale to be rejected sometime next month and speculated that a Presidential veto would be easily overridden.
The staff member said today that Lugar and Dole were “scouting around to see if there is any mood at all” to extend the deadline. The two Senators have been exploring the possibility of an extension since early this month, according to Dole’s aide. It was still unclear today whether Dole and Lugar could win sufficient support for a second extension, but it appears unlikely to go through unless some evidence of movement toward peace talks can be demonstrated.
Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy was sent to Europe last week for separate meetings with King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Premier Shimon Peres, in an effort to win agreement on conditions for some kind of international conference that would serve as a backdrop for direct negotiations between Israel and Jordan. Peres is conducting a European tour in which he is seeking support for his efforts to boost the peace process.
The Murphy visit has been interpreted in large part as a last-ditch effort to avert rejection by Congress of the Jordan arms package, which includes F-16 or F-20 jet fighters and surface-to-air missiles.
But an aide at the office of Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R. Minn.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said today he doubted that sufficient support could be rallied for an extension of the March I deadline. The aide said he is aware that Dole was seeking the extension, but that his proposal was not a “live option at this point.
“I also understand that there is not an awful lot of appetite on anybody’s part to just have another delay, “the aide said.
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