Congress is not expected to block a $473 million contract proposed by the Bush administration last week to provide Saudi Arabia with jeeps and aircraft maintenance and training.
The proposed sale was unveiled by the administration July 11, as a $682 million arms package for the United Arab Emirates cleared Capitol Hill. Congress has 30 days to block arms sales after formal notification from the administration.
Pro-Israel lobbyists are more concerned about expectations that sometime after Labor Day, the administration will announce a major Saudi package valued at more than $10 billion. That package has been projected to include F-15 fighter planes, AWACS surveillance aircraft and multiple-launch rocket systems.
The package announced last week includes 2,300 Humvee jeeps, or High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles. Valued together at $123 million, the jeeps would be sold from U.S. stocks left in Saudi Arabia after the Persian Gulf War.
The remaining $350 million would provide training and maintenance for AWACS and aerial refueling tanker planes in the Saudi arsenal.
The Pentagon said the airplane services “will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to maintain the security of a friendly country.” The prime contractor is the Boeing Co. of Seattle.
The sale of jeeps “is consistent with the stated U.S. policy” of transferring “reasonable amounts of defense articles and services,” the Pentagon said. The jeeps would provide “an allterrain mode of transportation for (Saudi) ground forces.”
Saudi Arabia “has been and continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East,” the Pentagon said. The jeeps would be sold by LTV Corp. of South Bend, Ind.
OPPOSITION TO UAE SALE
The package for the United Arab Emirates includes 20 Apache attack helicopters and 620 Hellfire missiles.
Symbolic opposition to the sale came from 28 senators, who signed onto a resolution of disapproval sponsored by Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.). A similar resolution was introduced in the House by Reps. Dante Fascell (D-Fla.) and Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.).
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee did not take a position on the UAE package, said one pro-Israel lobbyist. When told of the proposed Saudi jeep and AWACS training package, the lobbyist issued a flat “no” to the possibility of opposition.
Meanwhile, Cranston is accusing the UAE of possibly using laundered drug money to pay for the $682 million package.
He cited a July 10 New York Times report that the UAE president, Sheik Zayed bin Sultanal-Nahayan, is the principal shareholder of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which Cranston called “one of the world’s most notorious launderers of narcotics money.”
The bank collapsed July 5, when leading creditors, including Britain and other governments, seized its assets.
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