U.S. Gets Saudi Landing Rights, Officials Report

Saudi Arabia, further easing its reluctance about closer military ties with the United States, has agreed to provide expanded landing rights and refueling support for U.S. aircraft engaged in Persian Gulf military operations, U.S. officials and diplomatic sources said Friday.

Some sources also said Kuwait, formerly the strongest opponent among Arab states of superpower military involvement in the gulf, has offered refueling aid for U.S. planes involved in the Navy escort of “reflagged” Kuwaiti tankers.

However, other sources said that, while the United States has held recent talks with Kuwait, they are not sure if an understanding has been reached.

Beyond Present Arrangements

As described by the sources, the understanding with Saudi Arabia would go beyond the arrangement under which four advanced U.S. AWACS radar-surveillance planes and three aerial tankers have operated from the country since 1980.

The sources said the Saudis, previously unwilling to extend landing rights to U.S. combat aircraft, will allow carrier-based jet fighters and anti-submarine planes to land for refueling and other logistical aid under what the sources called “emergency” or “in case of need” conditions.

According to the sources, the circumstances under which the ban on combat aircraft will be relaxed are being kept vague and are likely to be decided on a case by case basis.

One Administration official said the rules would be dictated by various “operational situations” that might confront the aircraft if they become involved in confrontations with Iranian forces or other emergencies.

Fragile Understanding

The situation is “more accurately described as an ‘understanding’ rather than a concrete agreement in the sense of a document with signatures on it,” one U.S. official said. “If one gets too explicit about these arrangements, they are likely to disappear.”

That was a reference to domestic and regional concerns that in the past have caused the six Arab kingdoms and sheikdoms of the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council to spurn U.S. offers of closer military ties.

Motivating these nations were fears of provoking retaliation from Iran and a desire not to stir up internal nationalist and Muslim fundamentalist forces opposed to overt Western influences.

‘Conditioned on Secrecy’

“For that reason, whatever cooperation that has taken place has been conditioned on secrecy,” a senior U.S. military official said. “On at least one occasion, an offer of assistance has been withdrawn after it was reported publicly.”

However, during the last two to three weeks, Saudi Arabia and the other gulf states have been showing less wariness about military cooperation, sources said. One senior U.S. official described the trend as “more of a gradually rising . . . rather than a sudden jump.”

Others added that, while the gulf states still insist on maximum secrecy, the Administration has been so encouraged by their growing cooperation that it has started thinking in terms of what one called “the possibility of establishing an onshore logistical chain” to back up U.S. air and naval forces throughout the gulf.

The sources said the change in attitude appears to have been prompted in large part by such recent incidents as rioting by Iranian pilgrims at Mecca, in which 402 people were killed, and the increased number of mines, apparently laid by Iran, being found in gulf waters.

Appeasement Unsuccessful

The sources said these incidents have made the gulf states increasingly aware that their efforts to mollify Iran through appeasement and keeping the United States at arms length are not succeeding.

In addition, some U.S. officials said, when gulf tension began increasing earlier this year because of the Iran-Iraq War, many gulf states expressed doubt that the United States would be willing to commit sizable forces to protect shipping in the region.

However, these officials said, the way in which the United States has carried out its commitment to protect convoys of reflagged tankers has convinced gulf leaders that Washington is determined not to be intimidated by what one official called “Iran’s war of nerves.”

Convoy Reaches Port

Reports of the Saudi understanding on landing rights came as another convoy of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers escorted by U.S. warships reached their home waters safely Friday, surprising shipping experts who thought high winds had stalled the convoy in the Persian Gulf.

“The voyage from the central Persian Gulf waters was quiet and without incident,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

“They pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes . . . ,” one Persian Gulf shipping source told the Associated Press in Manama, Bahrain. “They used the bad weather and thick dust storms to slip away unnoticed.”

The 294,739-ton supertanker Townsend and the twin liquefied gas carriers Gas Queen and Gas Princess, both 46,723 tons, entered Kuwaiti waters at 5:30 p.m. local time, the Pentagon said. It said the destroyer Kidd and the frigates Hawes and Klakring escorted the tankers home.

New Command Structure

The Pentagon also announced Friday that it was combining all U.S. military units operating in and around the gulf under a new Joint Task Force Middle East and installing Rear Adm. Dennis M. Brooks as commander. Brooks is currently commander of the 7th Fleet battle force and the Navy’s Carrier Group 5 in the Philippines.

Pentagon officials also said Friday that the amphibious landing ship Raleigh cleared the Suez Canal and would arrive in the gulf next week bearing a cargo of four small minesweeping boats.

When the Raleigh arrives in the region next week, it will bring to 11 the number of Navy ships operating inside the Persian Gulf. The force includes eight warships that are performing the actual escort work, the flagship La Salle and the Guadalcanal, an amphibious assault ship that entered the gulf a week ago carrying eight minesweeping helicopters.