Middle East

By Michael S. Serrill

The arms deal of the century, newspapers around the world are calling it. Over the next two decades, Saudi Arabia will buy as much as $25 billion worth of jet fighters, helicopters, minesweepers and military services from Britain in exchange for oil and hard cash. The agreement, signed earlier this month, means that Britain will supplant the U.S. as the Saudis' main arms supplier. The British thus benefited directly from the U.S. Congress's refusal to approve the transfer to the Saudis of 40 advanced F-15 fighters in 1985 and 800 Stinger missiles in 1986.

The accord delivers a blow to U.S. influence in the Arab world and highlights the Reagan Administration's losing fight to overcome the resistance of the powerful U.S. Jewish lobby to weapons sales to Arab countries. The last major U.S. deal with the Saudis was in 1981, when the Administration barely surmounted congressional opposition and sold Riyadh five AWACS radar- surveillance planes.

U.S. relations with the Arab world were further complicated last week when, much to the surprise and embarrassment of the White House, the Senate voted to deny Kuwait sophisticated Maverick air-to-surface missiles just days before the Kuwaiti Prime Minister, Crown Prince Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah, arrived in Washington. Kuwait would like to buy $l.9 billion worth of arms, including 40 F-18 jet fighters, of which the Mavericks are considered an essential feature.

Administration officials contended last week that it is in America's interest -- strategically, diplomatically and economically -- to meet the military needs of friendly Arab states and thereby maintain some control over how the weapons are used. "If we don't sell the Kuwaitis the weapons systems they need," said a State Department official, "they are going to go elsewhere."

Kuwait made its options clear when, in the wake of the Senate vote, it promptly agreed to buy 245 armored personnel carriers from the Soviet Union. A host of other nations, including France, China, Brazil and Argentina, are eagerly competing to meet the oil-rich Persian Gulf Arabs' desire to shore up defenses against their fundamentalist neighbor Iran.

Under the British-Saudi agreement, Riyadh will obtain 48 Tornado fighter- bombers to add to the 72 it has already contracted for, as well as up to 60 Hawk jet trainers, 80 helicopters and six minesweepers. Britain will also build two military airfields and provide training for Saudi Arabia's army and air force.

Israeli officials accused the British of undermining the Jewish state's security. Yossi Ben-Aharon, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's director general, said the Tornado fighters would allow Saudi Arabia to "hit us in the soft underbelly from the south." But Israeli objections were dismissed by British officials. The Israelis "know full well," said a Cabinet minister, that the weapons will be deployed only as a defense against Iran.

The wooing of the Saudis absorbed the British government at every level. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul al-Saud attended the races at Ascot last month as the guest of Queen Elizabeth II. Having visited Saudi Arabia to press for the sale in 1986, Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was not about to fall in line with the U.S. in this case, as she has on other issues. She is determined that nothing go amiss with a deal that promises to create 50,000 British jobs.

With reporting by Dean Fischer/Cairo and Frank Melville/London