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FRIDAY APRIL 22, 1988
The Saudis' Chinese Missiles
Are Embarrassing Everyone
(3 13) 88 1-5 2 00
I
t's hard to tell, but there
are things happening in
Washington besides
presidential politics. Con-
gress is busy zeroing in on the
recent acquisition by Saudi
Arabia of intermediate range
"East Wind" missiles from
China — an acquisition that
is turning into a diplomatic
disaster for the Saudis and an
intelligence embarrassment
- for the United States.
At _ a private meeting on
Capitol Hill, a top aide to
Saudi Ambassador Prince
Bandar bin Sultan briefed a
group of congressional aides
on the Saudi view of the
controversy.
Ad _ el A. Al-Jubein, accord-
ing to sources who attended
the briefing, insisted that the
Riyadh government turned to
the Chinese for missiles
because of fears that the U.S.-
Saudi relationship was deter-
iorating in the 1985-1986
period.
Specifically, what bothered
Saudi leaders was Congress'
refusal to sell 48 F-15s and
other advanced weapons sys-
tems.
Al-Jubein argued that
when Israel and other nations
acquire nuclear and chemical
weapons,the reaction in
Washington is hard to detect
— but when the Saudis buy
non-nuclear misiles, Congress
blows its stack.
And the Saudi emissary in-
sisted that the missiles were
purchased as a deterrent
aimed at Iran, and are not in-
tended as a threat to Israel.
According to one source, the
Saudi representative was
"slick and effective." He had
to be; a number of legislators
are irked because of recent
reports that Prince Bandar
has boasted that his govern-
ment snookered -U.S. intel-
ligence.
The missiles are especially
worrysome to Israel because
of their innaccuracy; the fact
that they cannot hit targets
with any precision lends sup-
port to the idea that the only
thing they're good for is the
delivery of atomic or chemical
weapons.
And, as the current deva-
station in Iran and Iraq sug-
gests, the introduction of such
weapons into the Middle East
is already underway.
In a related story, the let-
ters continue to fly around
Capitol Hill. The subject is
the latest Administration pro-
Metzenbaum: 58 signatures.
posal to sell arms to the
Saudis — which hasn't even
reached the formal notifica-
tion stage.
Last week, Sen. H
_ oward
Metzenbaum's letter on the
Senate side had accumulated
an impressive 58 signers who
urged the Administration to
re-examine the whole ques-
tion of arms sales to the
Saudis, a key element in cur-
rent U.S. middle east policy —
and a perennial cause for con-
cern among the pro-Israel
community.
A similar letter, authored
by Rep. Charles Schumer (D-
N.Y.), Rep. Connie Morella (R-
Md.) and Rep. Larry Smith
(D-Fla.) is expected to emerge
from the House sometime
this week. The House letter
has faced tougher going. Ac-
cording to some House in-
siders, some representatives
are wary of signing anything
relating to the Middle East --
a reaction to last month's
"Letter of Thirty" furor over
on the Senate side.
The current sale, which is
still in the "pre-notification"
stage, involves Bradley Fight-
ing Vehicles, TOW missiles
and equipment for that coun-
try's AWACs. There are in-
dications that the pro-Israel
community may not wage all-
out war against this sale.
"They don't have to," one
House weapons specialist
said. "The Saudis shot
themselves in the foot with
their Chinese missiles."
Budget Cuts May
Hurt Israel Aid
The Pentagon is facing
steep budget cuts as the
federal government struggles
to get the deficit under con-
trol, and there are mixed
signals about what this will
mean for Israel.
Specifically, there are
reports that the staff at the
Israeli Embassy is concerned
about how proposed cuts
might effect U.S.-Israeli joint
military ventures. More wor-
risome still is the impact
these cuts may have on the
sale of Israeli weapons
systems to the United States.
"Basically, it's still too ear-
ly to tell what will happen in
the short run;' says Shoshana
Bryen, executive director of
Jewish Institute for National
Security Affairs (JINSA) , a
group that pays close atten-
tion to arms matters. "The
money for the current budget
year is still in the pipeline.
But in the long run, there's no
question that these cuts will
have a very negative impact
on Israel."
An especially touchy issue
at Defense is the question of
purchases from Israel's grow-
ing arms industry. In 1981,
Israel sold $9 million in hard-
ware to the United States;
last year, that figure was up
to $262 million. And this isn't
just gravy for Israel; to make
their arms industry work,
they need to produce more
than they can use, and sell
the surplus.
Some of the hardware pro-
duced in Israel is sold direct-
ly to the Pentagon; other
systems go through U.S. com-
panies, who are less suscepti-
ble to the persuasion of the
pro-Israel lobby. One recent
positive development, from
Israel's point of view, was the
cancellation of a U.S. Army
program to develop remotely
piloted vehicles, or RPVs,
after more than $1 billion in
development costs — a cancel-
lation that should open the
doors to the Israelis, who have
RPVs on the shelf.
Genocide Passage
The missing half of the U.S.
ratification of the Genocide
Convention took another ma-
jor step forward last week,
despite the threat of crippling
amendments.
The implementing legisla-
tion, which puts last year's
Senate ratification of the
treaty into effect, survived an
amendment offered by Sen.
Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) ad-
ding death-penalty provisions
to the bill — a move that
many Jewish activists saw as
an attempt to use the
genocide bill as a showcase for
for death-penalty advocates.
Thurmond's amendment was
defeated, and the bill now
goes to the Senate floor.
On the House side, action
was expected sometime this