U.S. Will Ask Congress to OK Arms for Saudis

The Reagan Administration said today it will ask Congress to approve the sale of American weapons to Saudi Arabia.

“There are a number of weapons sales to Saudi Arabia that we are considering, and will be sending to the Congress at some point,” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said.

“Discussions have been held with members of Congress about the best way to present this package, and the timing and so forth,” Fitzwater said in Santa Barbara, where President Reagan is vacationing.

But the spokesman said “no decisions have been made at this point.”

1,600 Anti-Tank Missiles

Congressional and other sources said the contemplated package would include 1,600 Maverick antitank missiles and would be worth about $1 billion.

White House chief of staff Howard H. Baker Jr., a former Senate Republican leader, has a key role in the emerging Administration strategy. His job is to sound out senior Senate and House Republicans after Congress returns from its summer recess on Sept. 9 on the chances of pushing the deal through.

Mindful, however, of an embarrassing political setback earlier in the year, the White House is proceeding cautiously. While Pentagon and other officials recommended the sale of Mavericks and other weapons to the Saudis, the package has not yet been approved by Reagan. Nor, the sources said, has the process set by law for informing Congress actually begun.

“There have been no decisions made as of now,” Phyllis Oakley, a State Department spokeswoman, said.

She stressed, however, that the two countries had “a longstanding and important security relationship” that includes U.S. weapons sales to the oil-rich kingdom. “We are certainly going to proceed with other items in this relationship,” Oakley said.

Once Congress is notified, the sale would go through unless both the Senate and House approve measures to veto it. Reagan still would have a chance to override the veto.

Meanwhile, Sen. Claiborne Pell, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said it was his understanding that the proposal would not be formally made anytime soon.

“I am pleased to hear that . . . the Administration has no plans to submit an arms sale package for Saudi Arabia when the Congress reconvenes in September. To do so would make a bad situation worse in the tense Persian Gulf,” said Pell.