King Fahd warns Iran

Press, 27 July 1988, Page 10

King Fahd warns Iran

NZPA-Reuter Bahrain King Fahd of Saudi Arabia warned Iran today against attacking his country and called on young Saudis to join the armed forces.

“If Iran, or anyone else, thinks that Saudi Arabia is unable to defend itself then it is mistaken,” the king told a group of Army and police officers in a late-night televised speech. He also strongly defended his country’s arms deal with China and told Washington that Riyadh would seek arms elsewhere if it was denied American weapons.

The king said Saudi

Arabia would never be an aggressor nation but declared “we will face any State that wishes to attack (our) country.” King Fahd, who received the officers on the occasion of the Muslim Eid-al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice), said 300,000 well-educated recruits would be an asset to Saudi security.

He stressed that Saudi Arabia, which severed ties with Iran last April after accusing it of “enemy-like” practices, “does not want to enter with Iran, or with other than Iran, in a problem.” The king said Riyadh was not obliged to buy Western-made weapons. “It is an agreement of

interests,” he said. “We are paying money for the weapons, nothing is for free. There are no emotions in bilateral interests.

“If it is difficult (to have an arms deal) with one country, we go somewhere else,” King Fahd added. The United States Congress has blocked several arms deals to Arab States, including Saudi Arabia, for fear the weapons could be used against Israel. Last November, it prohibited the sale of advanced F-15E jet fighters to Riyadh and limited it to older F-15 versions.

To get the bill through Congress, the Reagan Ad-

ministration deleted the sale of 1600 Maverick anti-tank missiles and ultra-sophisticated AN/ APG-70 radars from the deal.

Saudi Arabia, apparently angered by the decision, turned to China, a country it does not recognise, for surface-to-surface CSS2 tactical missiles.

Riyadh and Peking said the missiles, with a range of 3500 km, would not carry miclear warheads.

The Saudis also signed a multi-billion dollar deal, one of the West’s largest arms accords, with Britain for Tornado jet fighters, helicopters patrol boats and minehunters.