U.S. Plans $20-Billion Weapons Sale to Saudis

In what would be the largest military sale in U.S. history, the Bush Administration plans to sell Saudi Arabia about $20 billion worth of advanced jets, tanks and other weapons to help bolster the major U.S. ally against future Persian Gulf aggression, U.S. officials said Friday night.

President Bush is expected to make a final decision on the arms package, which would fall within a range of $18 billion to $22 billion, after conferring with top Administration officials, perhaps as early as this weekend, the officials said.

The proposed deal would be in addition to $2.2 billion in fighter jets and other arms sold to the Saudis last month and would dwarf the previous record arms sale of $8 billion, which also went to the Saudis.

The massive package, already approved by the Pentagon, would provide Saudi Arabia with immediate delivery of at least 24 F-15 fighters, up to 300 M-1 tanks, several hundred Bradley armored fighting vehicles, 48 Apache attack helicopters and hundreds of air-to-air missiles, and Stinger and Patriot surface-to-air missiles, U.S. and Saudi officials said.

The officials said the deal is the hallmark of a long-range Administration plan to boost Saudi military capabilities to enable the desert kingdom to defend itself against Iraq or other aggressors once the current crisis passes and the United States withdraws its forces from the region.

“The money thing is huge,” a White House official said, calling the proposal “probably the biggest arms sale in history.”

To counter Israeli opposition to the sale, the Administration is considering a separate arms deal with Israel, officials said. But the Saudi arms proposal, far larger than congressional observers had predicted, is nevertheless certain to stir controversy in the pro-Israel lobby in Congress.

One source described the package as “assistance across the board” and said the proposal is designed to “shore up the Saudi military at virtually every level.”

The Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar ibn Sultan, provided outlines of the plan to the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a closed session Thursday afternoon. U.S. officials confirmed Friday that the Administration had agreed to the package in principle.

A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a figure of $18 billion to $22 billion is “in the ballpark.”

He said the President had not yet been given a final recommendation. A single proposal was being prepared by the National Security Council after the Pentagon recommended a larger package than that proposed by the State Department.

The official said he expected that much of the weaponry would come from existing inventories--possibly from weapons already carried or flown to Saudi Arabia along with U.S. troops deployed there--and would not necessarily be purchased from manufacturers.

Another source, however, said the package would include top-of-the-line F-15E planes that have not yet been built and might not be delivered for several years.

The plan has been under consideration since Defense Secretary Dick Cheney flew to Saudi Arabia last month to negotiate a long-range military assistance agreement with King Fahd.

Administration officials had indicated in announcing the first-stage assistance plan of $2.2 billion that more aid was in the pipeline. But a congressional official who has been monitoring the issue described the $20-billion figure as “staggering.”

The earlier Administration proposal called for the sale of 24 F-15s, 150 M-60 tanks, 50 Stinger missile launchers and 200 Stinger missiles. That proposal came on top of $4 billion in arms designated earlier in the year for delivery to the Saudis.

Administration officials said the largest previous sale was in 1981, when the Saudis agreed to purchase $8 billion in air-defense equipment, including AWACS aircraft and F-15 fighters.

The White House official said that it is uncertain whether Bush would work on the matter at Camp David, Md., where he is spending the weekend. As of Friday evening, the President had no meetings planned with senior White House advisers at the retreat. Still, it was hoped that the sale could be announced next week.

That schedule, however, would mean the Administration was unveiling a huge shipment of weapons just as Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens was visiting Washington. “I’m sure we’ll hear something from him (Arens) next week,” the White House official noted wryly.

Israel already has demanded that the United States forgive the $4.5 billion it owes the nation to compensate for an Administration decision, made formal Friday, to excuse Egypt’s $7-billion military debt. U.S. officials said the Administration had not yet decided whether to meet the request.

Israel was also understood to be pressuring the United States for new military equipment and better intelligence ties that could help it defend against an Arab attack.

Another official noted that Syria also might be expected to express concern about the Saudi sale, and said Secretary of State James A. Baker III was expected to have raised the subject in his meeting in Damascus on Friday with Syrian President Hafez Assad.

Baker is scheduled to return to Washington early Sunday, and one knowledgeable official said he would travel to Camp David to meet with Bush in preparation for a final decision on the matter. The official said the Saudi government had been alerted that the announcement could come as early as Monday.

Officials said it remains uncertain whether the proposal will be sent to Congress as a single package or divided into separate parts to minimize political opposition. They said one plan called on the White House to ask for immediate approval of one $7-billion package, but to defer the rest of the proposal until later in the year.