WASHINGTON Ñ Legislation introduced in the Senate could result in a
halt to U.S. weapons sale to Saudi Arabia.
Sponsors of the bill said the legislation would require Washington to
force what they termed reluctant Arab allies to demonstrate their support
for the U.S.-led war against terrorism. They said Saudi Arabia would be a
key target of the bill, Middle East Newsline reported.
"If you're going to support terrorism directly or indirectly as a
country then the United States should not support you," Sen. Sam Brownback,
a Kansas Republican and sponsor of the bill, said. "We shouldn't support you
financially, we shouldn't support you with weapons sales and we want
countries to make a choice: You're with us or against us in the war on
terrorism."
Brownback told a Washington conference sponsored by the Aspen Institute
in Berlin that the bill targets four areas of cooperation. They are a halt
to
terrorist financing, sharing information and intelligence, acting against
terrorist cells or groups and ceasing support for terrorism and
anti-American rhetoric in state-owned media and state-sponsored gatherings.
Simon Henderson, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy, raised the prospect of missile cooperation between Pakistan and
Saudi Arabia. Henderson said that a Saudi prince attended a May 25 test of
the Pakistiani intermediate-range Ghauri missile. Envoys from Libya and
North Korea also attended.
"This is an extraordinary state of affairs that somebody, a country,
which is going to be a partner of the United States in the war against
terrorism, seems to be associating in this way in an event, which is
prejudicial to the American view on terrorism, weapon of mass destruction,
et cetera, et cetera," Henderson said.
"We are seeing a shift, a steady shift in the relationship between the
U.S. and Saudi Arabia," Henderson told the Aspen conference.
"The Saudis are
drawing away and it's a deliberate drawing away. To our logic the events of
September 11th, which seemed to be such a threat not only to the United
States but also to the stability of Saudi Arabia, could have caused one or
two options or possibly both of them. One would be for the Saudis to clasp
more firmly to
the U.S. security blanket. Another would be for the Saudis to deal more
ruthlessly with dissent and opposition within Saudi Arabia."
