Germany Jabs Bush Plan To Sell Arms to Saudi Arabia

Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party said President Bush's plan to sell arms to Saudi Arabia and five other states in the Gulf is misguided and myopic.

Mr. Bush "is obviously gifted in the way that he always picks exactly the wrong approach in foreign policy and security matters," Hubertus Heil, general secretary of the Social Democrats, which is in coalition with Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats, told a news conference in Berlin yesterday. "It's short-sighted and irresponsible" to distribute weapons in the Gulf region.

The Bush administration wants to ask Congress this week to approve an arms-sale package to Saudi Arabia and five other Gulf countries that may total more than $20 billion. America is also planning a new 10-year military aid package to Israel and Egypt as it seeks support in containing Iran's nuclear ambitions and for its new push for an Israeli-Palestinian Arab peace settlement.