Word: arabia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When the Reagan Administration proposed selling some $5 billion worth of air weaponry, including five highly sophisticated Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, to Saudi Arabia last April, there was little doubt that opposition might be strong enough in Congress to veto the deal. Republican Senators Howard Baker of Tennessee and Paul Laxalt of Nevada advised the President to delay official notification of his intent to make the sale until he had enough votes lined up to support the package. Reagan waited, and last week sent that notification to Congress...
...that it would give the Saudis the help they need to defend the oil fields to the claim that it would give the U.S. a new chance to inject its own military power into the Middle East. Buckley contended that U.S. military ground crews will be required in Saudi Arabia for years to maintain the complex aircraft. He even suggested that the ground facilities could be used by U.S. forces "if we do have to go in in a hurry" in any future emergency involving oil facilities...
...protect the AWACS on any snooping mission aimed at Israel, that there is no way to keep any intelligence gathered by Saudi AWACS crews from being given to Israel's more menacing Arab enemies, and that the four AWACS planes now being operated by the U.S. in Saudi Arabia (under an agreement extending through 1984) are the best way to protect the interests of all parties. Opponents also warn that the Saudi government is unstable, and that if it fell, as had the pro-U.S. regime of the late Shah of Iran, the sophisticated weaponry could...
Further complications arose when Nigeria announced that, unless a reunified pricing agreement was reached, it would undercut even Saudi Arabia's existing price of $32 per bbl. for comparable grades of crude in order to boost sales. The country is currently losing an estimated $1.5 billion monthly from its dwindling oil business, and its $8 billion in foreign exchange reserves could run out by year's end. "They [the Nigerians] are on the verge of panic," said one conference delegate. "We are all nervous about this...
With negotiations totally stalled, the delegates took an unprecedented step. They asked their heads of government to appeal to Saudi Arabia's King Khalid to accept a compromise at $35 per bbl. But the effort came to nothing. As a belated gesture of good will, Yamani announced as soon as the conference ended that, although his country was sticking by its $32-per-bbl. price, it would nonetheless help tighten the market for other OPEC producers by cutting Saudi production by 1 million bbl. daily in September...