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India : France backs off Saudi fighter sale

Author: idrw team | 29 October 2007 | Views: 363

BY : Reuters

France is no longer pushing Saudi Arabia to buy Rafale fighters now that the kingdom has purchased Typhoon jets from Britain, French Defence Minister Herve Morin said on Sunday during a visit to the Arab kingdom.

"We haven't discussed Rafale in Saudi Arabia. It's not a current issue," Morin told reporters in Jeddah after talks with Saudi leaders. "I think that after the Typhoon order it's not necessarily a priority."

Last month Saudi Arabia and Britain announced a 4.43 billion pound ($9.09 billion) deal for 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets as part of a contract that could be worth up to 20 billion pounds to prime contractor BAE Systems and firms spread across Europe as well as in Saudi Arabia.Morin's comments come days after France failed to sell its Rafale advanced fighter jets to Morocco, a Francophone country normally seen as part of France's political orbit. Morocco is expected to buy US F-16s instead.

France had been holding out for a Rafale deal for some time. Former President Jacques Chirac visited Saudi Arabia last year.

Morin said Paris was open to helping the kingdom in a possible nuclear energy programme, when asked about the bid by Riyadh and fellow Gulf Arabs to start a peaceful nuclear energy programme.

"France considers itself open to this," he said.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are flush with cash on booming world oil and gas prices and a trail of foreign leaders have come hoping to win contracts and Saudi investment.

Saudi Arabia, the largest Gulf Arab country, is boosting its armed forces as regional tension heightens over Iran's stand-off with the United States over Tehran's nuclear programme.

Washington said in August it intends to approve the sale of at least $20 billion-worth of arms to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries.

Asked about Saudi investment in strategic French industries, Morin said Arab money was welcome.

"EADS already has UAE and Qatari funds in its capital. So there is no reason for such investments not to be made in French or European firms as long as it's in the interest of the company," he said.

Qatar Investment Authority has an indirect ownership in EADS, the parent company of commercial airliner Airbus, through shareholdings in Lagardere and a Dubai fund.

Qatar said in March it was interested in buying as much as 10% of EADS.

EADS is parts of the BAE-led consortium building the Eurofighter aircraft.

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Comments (1)

#1 Author: avatar_singh (30 October 2007 19:04)

| Registered: 30 August 2007 | ICQ: --

this is how the corrupt british bastards do the selling.

http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2007/07/07/new-accomplice-cheney-bandar-spotlight-british-cabinet-secre.html

http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2007/07/07/new-accomplice-cheney-bandar-spotlight-british-cabinet-secre.html

quote "New Accomplice of Cheney/Bandar: Spotlight on British Cabinet Secretary in Blocking BAE Probe
Increase Decrease

July 5, 2007 (LPAC)--An investigative spotlight is being put on a British senior servant who helped block the Serious Fraud Office's investigation of alleged bribery of Saudi officials by BAE Systems' massive Al Yamamah arms deal.

Sir Richard Mottram, who is currently the Cabinet's Permanent Secretary for Intelligence, Security and Resilience, according to today's Daily Telegraph, was involved in closing down the investigation. In fact Richard Wardle of the SFO, told the Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee last week that he stopped his investigations after being shown memos on the security threat from the prime minister offices, the attorney general and “papers from Sir Richard Mottram".

The problem with Mottram's involvement is that fact that he held positions in Ministry of Defense in the past where he was very knowledgeable of negotiating the Al Yamamah project. His career as a mandarin in Her Majesty's service began with a posting in the MoD. In 1985 he was private secretary to then Defense Minister Michael Hezeltine, in which capacity he would keep the latter briefed on progress of the negotiating the Al Yamamah deal. In this capacity he, according to the Telegraph wrote a memo to Charles Powell, now Lord Powell, who at the time was private secretary to then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher updating them on the progress of the negotiations.

In his current capacity he "coordinated" advice from the heads of intelligence agencies on the security risk posed by continuation of the SFO investigation, according to a Cabinet office spokesman.

According to his biography posted o-------"

Quote

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