NEWS BRIEFS

U.S. Warns Russia on Syrian Arms Sales

Ecuador Halts New Arms Buys

Helms Sets June Deadline for ABM Agreements

On January 22, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-NC) announced that the Clinton administration has until June 1 to submit the September 1997 ABM agreements to the Senate for its advice and consent to ratification. The agreements establish a "demarcation line" between permitted theater missile defense (TMD) systems and restricted ABM systems, and recognize Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine as the successor states to the former Soviet Union under the ABM Treaty.

The administration has consistently stated that it will not submit the ABM agreements (along with the START II extension protocol) to the Senate until after Russia has ratified START II.

Helms, a long-standing critic of the ABM Treaty, stated that "For the first time in 27 years, the Senate will have a chance to re-examine the wisdom of that dangerous treaty. And, if I succeed, we will defeat the ABM Treaty, toss it into the dustbin of history, and thereby clear the way to build a national missile defense for the United States." The Clinton administration, however, believes that the treaty will remain in force even if the Senate rejects the 1997 agreements.

Helms also restated his position that the Foreign Relations Committee will not take action on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) until after its consideration of the ABM agreements and the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which the administration likewise has yet to submit to the Senate. National Security Adviser Samuel Berger told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on January 12 that achieving Senate approval of the CTBT is one of the administration's top priorities for 1999.

U.S. Warns Russia on Syrian Arms Sales

During a January 25–27 trip to Russia, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov that Moscow risked losing up to $50 million in U.S. financial assistance if Russia delivered $200 million in guided anti-tank missiles reportedly purchased by Syria. The $50 million would not be cut from security and non-proliferation assistance, but from unobligated economic and political reform assistance.

Federal law prohibits appropriation of Foreign Assistance Act funds to countries that export "lethal military equipment" to states designated by the State Department as state-sponsors of international terrorism. Syria has been categorized as such since 1979 for providing refuge to, among other groups, the Kurdish PKK and the Iranian-backed Hizballah. (Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Sudan are also classified as state-sponsors of terrorism.)

Following Albright's visit, Syrian Minister of Defense Mustafa Tlass traveled to Russia on February 3 and reportedly discussed future buys of Russian equipment, including the S-300 air defense system, modern tanks and combat aircraft. However, a renewal of Russian arms shipments to cash-strapped Syria, which amassed at least $11 billion in arms debt to Moscow during the Cold War, has been discussed for years without any significant buys.

In another Russian arms sale criticized by Washington, Cyprus and Russia reached agreement on February 17 for the delivery of S-300 missiles purchased by Cyprus to the Greek island of Crete. While Cyprus will maintain ownership of the missiles, Greece will assume operational command.

Ecuador Halts New Arms Buys

Speaking on February 5 before the Organization of American States' (OAS) Permanent Council, Ecuadoran President Jamil Mahuad pledged not to spend "one cent" on weapons purchases while in office (August 1998 to January 2003). He also said that one-quarter of the military would be tasked with fighting crime. On the same day, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori—who reportedly suspended the purchase of "sophisticated armaments" last November—stated that the two countries are no longer engaged in an arms race, but rather a disarmament race. Both men were visiting Washington to celebrate their October 26, 1998 peace agreement, which ended the two countries' 56-year border conflict.

Prior to the peace agreement, however, Peru and Ecuador reportedly concluded major arms buys. According to data supplied by Belarus to the UN Register of Conventional Arms, Peru imported 18 MiG-29 fighters and 18 Su-25 ground attack aircraft from Minsk during 1996 and 1997. Ecuador, having tried unsuccessfully to obtain F-16 fighters from the United States and Kfir fighters from Israel, reportedly signed deals with Russia in early 1998 for 18 MiG-29 fighters and 7 Mi-17 transport helicopters. Mahuad's February 5 pledge would not affect these buys, since they preceded his term.