JEDDAH, 3 October 2005 — Saudi Arabia yesterday denied press reports that it was engaged in secret negotiations with Britain over a $70 billion arms deal. However, it pointed out that London had expressed its desire to sell Typhoon fighter planes to the Kingdom.
“There are no secret negotiations between the two countries on the deal to sell the Typhoon planes,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted a Defense Ministry spokesman as saying.
“But the British side has openly expressed a desire to supply Saudi Arabia with these planes, like any of the many friendly countries which produce sophisticated weapons systems,” the official said.
The spokesman said the Saudi government did not ask for or receive any official or unofficial offer from the British side on this subject.
“Saudi Arabia has the right to defend its territory by developing its own weapons systems or acquiring new systems from any country in the world,” he said.
The defense official also stressed that the Kingdom’s arms purchases were driven by “operational needs, and not in lieu of any political deals with these countries.”
The Saudi official denial comes following a report carried by the British newspaper The Guardian that Britain has been in secret discussions with Saudi Arabia over an arms deal worth up to 40 billion pounds.
It said British Defense Minister John Reid sought to persuade Crown Prince Sultan to re-equip the Kingdom’s air force with a European fighter plane called the Typhoon, which is largely manufactured by British defense and aerospace giant BAE Systems.
Prince Khaled ibn Sultan, assistant defense minister for military affairs, said Saturday that the Kingdom would not hold any secret talks for arms purchase. “We continuously review various types of weapons and military equipment including fighters available in the world before entering into talks or studying sales offers,” he said.
Saudi Arabia and Britain signed a deal in the 1980s, known as the Al-Yamamah Offset Program, to supply Saudi Arabia with fighter planes, artillery and other equipment. The prime contractor was BAE Systems.
In July, BAE Chief Executive Mike Turner was quoted as telling Flight International magazine that further lucrative contracts could be won in the Kingdom. “The objective is to get the Typhoon into Saudi Arabia. We’ve had 43 billion pounds ($71 billion) from Al-Yamamah over the last 20 years and there could be another 40 billion,” the magazine quoted him as saying.
