President Reagan has reiterated his intention to veto the Congressional resolution rejecting his proposed sale of $354 million in missiles to Saudi Arabia.
“It is the President’s intention to veto this resolution and to work actively with members of both Houses of Congress to sustain that veto,” White House spokesperson Larry Speakes said Wednesday.
His statement came after the House voted 356-62 Wednesday to reject the sale. The Senate had rejected the sale by a 73-22 vote on Tuesday. This is the first time Congress has disapproved an arms sale. The White House statement, which was repeated by the State Department Thursday, said that “the Congress has endangered our longstanding security ties with Saudi Arabia, calling into question the validity of U.S. commitments to its friends and undermining U.S. interests and policies throughout the Middle East, in particular, our ability to act as a balanced arbitrator in the search for a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israel conflict.”
It will take a two-thirds vote of both Houses to override the President’s veto. Both Sen. Alan Cranston (D. Cal.) and Rep. Mel Levine (D. Cal.), who led the move to reject the sale in their respective Houses, believe it can be done since the Senate vote was six more and the House vote 67 more than the needed two-thirds majority.
However, the Administration is expected to concentrate on the Republican-controlled Senate where it is felt that some of the Republicans who voted to reject the sale would not vote against a Reagan veto.
At the same time, observers note the overwhelming votes in both Houses which go beyond the traditional support for Israel in Congress. Both the government of Israel and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), while opposed to the sale, did not lobby against it.
The large vote was seen as a reaction to Saudi Arabia’s condemnation of the U.S. strike against Libya and to the Saudis’ financial support of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Syria. The fight over the missiles is only a prelude to the battle that may break out in June when the Administration is expected to present the necessary certification to Congress to allow it to begin delivering the AWACS sold to Saudi Arabia in 1981.
One of the criteria that the Administration must certify is that the Saudis have made a “substantial contribution to the peace and stability” of the Mideast.
Throughout the debate over the missile sale, Congressional opponents have argued that the Saudis have done nothing to support the peace process and have, instead, hindered it.
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