Haig Put on Notice That He Will Face Strong Opposition in Congress to Sale of Awacs to Saudi Arabia

— Even before Secretary of State Alexander Haig’s scheduled return tonight from the Middle East and Europe he was put on notice that he will face strong opposition in Congress to his proposals to provide Saudi Arabia with an advanced aircraft radar warning system.

Three Democratic Senators, Alan Cranston of California, Joseph Biden of Delaware and Carl Levin of Michigan, have announced that as soon as the Reagan Administration officially informs Congress of its plans to sell the Saudis five AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control Systems) they will introduce a resolution to block the sale.

Cranston and Biden, with the co-sponsor-ship of Levin and others, have already introduced a resolution to stop the sale of additional fuel tanks and Sidewinder air-to-air missiles for the 62 F-15 jets the Saudis bought previously.

SEES SENATE VOTING AGAINST SALE

At a press conference in his Senate office last Thursday, Levin said he believed that the vote on the enhancement material for the F-15s would be close but that the Senate would vote against selling the AWACS to the Saudis. He explained that not only would giving the Saudis the AWACS cause a “shift in the balance” of power in Arab-Israeli relations, but “lot of folks around here, including me,” are “leery of putting advanced technology in an unstable environment. We saw what happened in Iran.”

In a statement by Levin, Cranston and Biden, the three Senators warned that the sale of the AWACS to the Saudis “will threaten our interests in the Middle East by weakening our most stead-fast ally, Israel, and by precipitating a dangerous new level of the arms race in that region.” The Senators noted that if the Saudis had AWACS, it “would degrade Israeli air superiority which has enabled her to overcome being outnumbered on the ground.”

A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

The Senators pointed out an AWACS aircraft orbiting in northern Saudi Arabia could detect and track aircraft taking off from Israel, while providing simultaneous warning to Saudi air forces and to the air forces of other Arab states. The statement noted that the Saudis have called for a jihad (holy war) against Israel.

The AWACS are mobile airborne radar, command and communications stations that provide long-range, high and low altitude aircraft surveillance, including on all-weather detection and identification capability.

When Haig was in Saudi Arabia last Wednesday he reportedly agreed to sell five AWACS to the Saudis with delivery beginning in late 1985. Meanwhile, he has reportedly agreed to maintain in Saudi Arabia the four AWACS the U.S. sent there last September because of the Iraqi-Iranian war. They are flown and maintained by American personnel.

The growing opposition to the sale of both the AWACS and the material to enhance the offensive capability of the F-15s was also seen when 80 members of the House, led by Reps. James Blanchard (D. Mich.) and Jack Kemp (R. NY) voiced their opposition on the floor of the House last Tuesday.

(In Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir said in a radio interview yesterday that “we have always and still express our firm opposition to the sale of this equipment (AWACS). “He indicated that Israel saw little prospect that the U.S. would change its mind. He added that Israel could not encourage its friends in the U.S. to oppose the sale of AWACS to Saudi Arabia. “It is not Israel’s duty to give advice to members of Congress on how to deal with this problem,” Shamir said.)