Sanctions Voted by Senate Panel : GOP-Led Committee Rebels, 15-2, Against Reagan’s S. Africa Policy

The Republican-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee, rebelling against President Reagan’s policy of “constructive engagement,” voted overwhelmingly Friday for economic sanctions on South Africa--including one directed at Israel’s alleged arms sales to the Pretoria government.

The bill, which calls for a ban on new U.S. investment in South Africa and denies landing rights to South African aircraft, cleared the committee by a vote of 15 to 2, with only two GOP senators--Jesse Helms of North Carolina and Larry Pressler of South Dakota--voting against it.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said that the vote sent a message to the President that “reasonable sanctions are not only desirable, but necessary.” Dole said the seven Republican votes for the measure are “an indication of the strong support this measure will have on the Senate floor--overwhelming, bipartisan.”

‘Punitive’ Curbs Face Veto

Reagan has threatened to veto any sanctions measure against South Africa that he views as “punitive,” but White House officials had no immediate comment on the committee-approved measure.

Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) said he expects the sanctions bill to be made even tougher by amendments offered on the Senate floor but predicted that it would have enough bipartisan support to overcome a threatened filibuster by Helms and a presidential veto. It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster and a two-thirds majority to override a veto.

Lugar said the bill was crafted to penalize South Africa’s white minority leadership and not black workers. The President’s opposition to sanctions has been based partly on his concern that South Africa’s 25 million blacks would be hardest hit.

Among other things, the bill would immediately revoke U.S. landing rights for South African Airways; ban all new U.S. investments and new bank loans to South Africa; prohibit imports of South African uranium and coal; stop the Pretoria government and government-owned businesses from investing in U.S. banks, and authorize the President to deny visas to South African government officials and to sell off U.S. gold reserves to drive down the price of gold, a major South African export.

Stiffer Sanctions Later

In addition, the bill provides for much stiffer sanctions next year if the immediate measures fail to persuade Pretoria to release black leader Nelson Mandela, who has been imprisoned since 1961, and to take several other specific steps to relax the apartheid system of racial segregation. These include a ban on imports of steel, textiles, diamonds, agricultural products and strategic minerals from South Africa.

An immediate halt in textile imports proposed by Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) failed by a vote of 8 to 8. Cranston threatened to offer the textile ban as an amendment on the Senate floor. He also has pledged to seek a Senate vote on a tougher House-passed measure that would require divestiture of all U.S. holdings in South Africa.

Perhaps the most controversial provision of the legislation is one that directs the President to inform Congress which U.S. allies are believed to be selling military goods to South Africa, despite stated U.S. opposition, and recommends that the Administration terminate U.S. military assistance to these countries.

Committee sources said the measure was directed primarily at Israel, which is believed to be the chief violator of the embargo against the sale of military equipment to Pretoria. Israel is receiving about $1.8 billion in U.S. military assistance during the current fiscal year.

Cranston, a strong proponent of sanctions, voted against the provision but insisted that his vote had nothing to do with his longtime support for Israel. “It could jeopardize our relations with a number of nations--not just Israel,” he said.

3 Votes on Arms Provision

The committee voted three times on the arms provision. Two liberal Democrats, Sens. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, switched their votes twice.

Initially, a proposal to strike the provision failed by a vote of 5 to 11. Cranston voted with Helms and three other conservative Republicans in an unsuccessful effort to defeat it.

On the second vote, Democrats Dodd, Biden, Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island and Edward Zorinsky of Nebraska switched sides and the provision was deleted by a vote of 8 to 9. Finally, after Dodd requested a third vote, saying he had made a misjudgment on the second one, the provision was reinstated in the legislation by a vote of 10 to 7, with Biden switching his vote, too.

Tougher Than Original

The final version of the Foreign Relations Committee bill was somewhat tougher than the original draft offered by Lugar. Most of the changes resulted from an amendment offered by Republican Sens. Daniel J. Evans of Washington and Charles McC. Mathias Jr. of Maryland, which was adopted by a vote of 13 to 4.

The principal feature of the Evans-Mathias amendment was to specify a number of additional sanctions to be imposed after 12 months if the South Africans fail to free Mandela and to take three of these four other steps: repeal the current state of emergency, lift a ban on democratic political parties, repeal several key apartheid statutes, or commit to good-faith negotiations with representatives of the country’s black majority.

“The chances are less than 50-50 that any four out of that five will be accepted,” Evans acknowledged.