Word: arabia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...AWACS, the Saudi deal included extra fuel tanks and Sidewinder missiles to extend the range and increase the punch of 60 F-15s already ordered. On merit, the Administration's case for approving the sale was defensible, if not entirely convincing. The West has a vital stake in Saudi Arabia's oil and the stability of the Saudi regime in its turbulent region. To fend off Soviet encroachment and the threats of neighbors serving as Moscow's proxies, the U.S. must provide the Saudis with adequate defenses. The sale would not shift the balance of military strength in the Middle...
There were also strong counterarguments. Even with the new weaponry, thinly populated Saudi Arabia would remain vulnerable to external attacks, and the AWACS would do nothing to prevent the most plausible threat to the monarchy: an internal uprising by radical Muslims. The sale would violate explicit assurances made to Congress by Jimmy Carter in 1978 that the U.S. would never extend the offensive capacity of the Saudi arsenal. Moreover, Reagan and his lieutenants could not demonstrate that fulfilling earlier promises to give Saudi Arabia state-of-the-art hardware would advance any overall U.S. plan for dealing with the Middle...
...record on Israel or on bigotry." Later, in his speech at the dinner, Meese assured his audience that the Administration would prosecute any anti-Semitic acts under civil rights laws, and that it had pushed the AWACS sale in large part because it hoped to bring Saudi Arabia into peace negotiations with Israel. His audience was not mollified. Squadron, in a speech following Meese's, again insisted that the Administration "appeared to challenge the loyalties of those who oppose the arms package...
Fulminations from radical Arabs were to be expected. Far more troublesome and discouraging is a sour mood in Saudi Arabia itself. Officially, the desert monarchy showered Reagan with praise for his staunch battle on behalf of the AWACS. But TIME editors on a news tour of the Persian Gulf region with U.S. businessmen heard a different line from Saudi officials, beginning with Prince Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz, No. 3 in the Saudi hierarchy. "I personally am hoping for the failure of the vote today," he said only hours before the Senate roll call. "That would be an eye-opener...
...multimillion-dollar estate in Riyadh, Sheik Abdul Aziz Tawajiri, a commander of the Saudi Internal security force under Prince Abdullah, delivered an emotional warning. Its essence: Saudi Arabia's aspirations to pan-Arab leadership are incompatible with close Saudi-American friendship, so long as the U.S. remains Israel's chief supporter. Within Saudi Arabia, warned Tawajiri, "a generation gap is developing. Perceptions of the U.S. are changing, slowly perhaps, but for the worse." As most of his ten sons sat silently near by, the sheik, who is in his early 70s, asserted that they "have sizzling arguments with me. They...