Senate and House leaders on foreign affairs said today they will “thoroughly scrutinize” the Carter Administration’s proposed sale of the most advanced and powerful fighter bombers to Saudi Arabia and an unprecedented U.S. flow of lethal weapons to Egypt, beginning with warplanes.
Recation at the Capitol ranged from outright rejection to doubt on the wisdom of the Administration’s proposals to provide warplanes to Saudi Arabia and to Egypt. No voice was raised in support of the Administration’s program which Congress has the power to veto.
The Carter Administration, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was informed at the Capitol, has decided on the three-country package as a tactical means to force through its proposals in Congress. If the proposal for any one of the three countries is rejected, the Administration has indicated it will withdraw the entire package.
The purpose is to prevent pro-Israeli Congressmen from approving the Israeli allotments while reducing or eliminating those for the two Arab states with which the Carter Administration has been cultivating ever more friendly relations while cooling relations with Israel.
HEARINGS MAY NOT BEGIN TILL APRIL
Hearings by the Senate Foreign Relations and the House International Relations Committees, which will be the first Congressional panels to consider the proposals, have not been scheduled. Key members, however, indicated they will not begin until after Congress returns from its spring recess April 2.
With 10 of the Senate Committee’s 15 members having warned the Administration last month in two letters not to go through with the delivery of the F-15s to Saudi Arabia, the Administration has apparently decided to challenge the Committee’s judgement and is prepared for a confrontation on the whole matter of U.S. military support in the Middle East and its motives.
Sen. Clifford Case (R.NJ), who along with Sen. Frank Church (D.Idaho) and five other Democratic Committee members, wrote to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance on Jan. 24 in opposition to the Saudi program, said today the proposed sale to both Saudi Arabia and Egypt “opens up a whole new arms sales equation which will have to be thoroughly investigated” by the Committee. “In particular,” Case added, “there are serious questions” as to whether the proposed sale to the Saudis “does not exceed that country’s legitimate defense requirements.”
Sen. Jacob Javits (R.NY) said today that he was looking to see “whether there is a connection respecting the timing of these sales in view of the stalemate in the Egypt-Israel negotiations and the U.S. position on Israeli settlements.”
Sen. Daniel Moynihan (D.NY) and Rep. Clarence Long (D.Md.), chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, voiced what appeared to be the sentiments of a large number of their colleagues in opposing the sales. Moynihan said the Saudi sale was “especially disturbing.” He said he was sure Congress will veto the deal because of the potential threat to Israel. Long said he has sworn to do everything in his power to stop the sale to the Arab states.
Rep. Lee Hamilton (D.Ind.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East, told JTA that “Congress ought not to be stampeded” into action on the proposals, a position shared by other members of the House International Relations Committee led by Rep. Clement Zablocki (D.Wis.). Rep. Lester Wolff (D.NY) announced yesterday he would propose that Congress block the sale.
A FACET OF CONGRESSIONAL SCRUTINY
One of the facets of the Congressional scrutiny is how serious the Administration is in providing the 60 F-15s to Saudi Arabia which would give that country alone a 3-2 advantage over Israel in that category of armament.
Capitol Hill sources said that in view of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s recent Washington visit and his public relations campaign, and Saudi Arabia’s oil and wealth, the Administration may be seeking to ingratiate itself diplomatically with Saudi Arabia and Egypt and leave it to Congress to pare down or eliminate the sales and thereby take responsibility for reactions from Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The possibility of a Saudi threat to impel Congress to go along by hiking oil prices or reducing the oil flow is well understood at the Capitol.
Rep. Jonathan Bingham (D.NY), a member of the House International Relations Committee, who met with President Carter at the White House today, cautioned in comments to JTA that “we’ve got to keep our eye on the main ball and the main ball is peace in the Middle East.” He added: “What I don’t like is crossing the line from non-lethal to lethal weapons. Once you sell lethal weapons, where is the end of it?” Until now the U.S. sold only C-130 transport planes to Egypt.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
