Official Announcement Expected Tuesday: Reagan Administration Decides to Sell Saudis 400 Anti-aircra

The Reagan Administration decided yesterday on the immediate sale to Saudi Arabia of 400 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and 200 shoulder-held missile launchers because of the emergency in the Persian Gulf. An official announcement is expected tomorrow.

The Administration is reported to have made an initial decision last Friday to provide the Saudis with 200 missiles and 100 launchers but later doubled the quantity at the urgent request of Saudi Arabia.

Friday’s decision came just a day after Vice President George Bush told a meeting here of Jewish editors and publishers that the Administration had made “no determination” on the long-projected missile sale to Saudi Arabia.

There had been some indication that 1,200 of the Stingers would go to Saudi Arabia. But this drew strong opposition in Congress where it was noted that the highly mobile weapon could easily fall into the hands of terrorists. Israel also is vigorously opposed to the sale and to the provision of any U.S. weapons systems to Arab confrontation states.

MONDALE OPPOSES SALE OF MISSILES

Former Vice President Walter Mondale, campaigning in New Jersey for the June 5 Democratic Presidential primaries, said on a Public Broadcasting System phone-in television program last night that he opposed the sale of Stingers to Saudi Arabia because they would be an ideal weapon for terrorists who wanted to shoot down commercial aircraft.

“The marginal increase in security that could be obtained through the supply of Stinger weapons in my opinion does not approach the danger of letting those things get into the hands of terrorists,” Mondale said.

The law requires a 30 day period for Congress either to veto such military sales or allow them to go through. But the law also allows the President to waive the 30-day rule on national security grounds.

In this case, President Reagan decided to use the waiver because of the threat to Western oil supplies by Iranian and Iraqi air attacks on Persian Gulf shipping. State Department officials indicated yesterday that the missiles would be delivered to Saudi Arabia within 72 hours after a formal announcement.

The U.S. will also send 20-30 military specialists to train the Saudis in the use of the missile launchers, a process that could take from a week to 10 days.

BUSH SOUGHT TO MOLLIFY JEWISH AUDIENCE

The decision is bound to trigger a reaction in the Jewish community. Bush, addressing the 42nd annual meeting of the American Jewish Press Association (AJPA) last Thursday, said he was not even sure that the Saudis had asked for the Stinger. Bush sits on the National Security Council where, presumably, such decisions are made.

Apparently he sought to mollify his Jewish audience which was disturbed by front page stories in The Washington Post and The New York Times on Thursday that the missile sale was being contemplated. Many of the AJPA delegates were angered that Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, who had addressed them only the day before, gave no hint of this.