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LONDON: British defence firm BAE Systems Plc declined to comment on Monday after a weekend newspaper report said Saudi Arabia's Defence Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud had indicated that a final deal for Eurofighter jets was imminent.
The multi-billion-pound deal appeared under threat last year before the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) dropped an investigation of past BAE-related arms deals in Saudi Arabia.
“The Crown Prince is understood to have told a local reporter that the state-of-the-art war planes would be delivered to the Kingdom 'very soon',” The Times reported.
A BAE spokesman said: “This is a government-to-government issue,” declining to comment further.
A UK government spokesman also declined to comment.
A deal for 72 Eurofighters was tentatively signed last August and is worth an estimated 6 billion pounds ($11.6 billion), according to defence analysts.
But the talks hit a snag after the SFO's investigation reportedly upset the Saudi royal family.
The SFO dropped the two-year probe in December in a surprise move which drew criticism from various quarters, including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The British government's top lawyer Lord Goldsmith said the move was taken after Prime Minister Tony Blair, security service chiefs and the Saudi ambassador to London expressed concern that prolonging the investigation could cause “serious damage” to relations with Riyadh.
BAE has said repeatedly that it was cooperating with the SFO and believed it had done nothing wrong in negotiating past contracts with Saudi officials.
The company serves as prime contractor for UK-Saudi defence deals known as Al Yamamah, or “dove” in Arabic, which represent some of the biggest export deals in UK history.
While the SFO has dropped its probe of past BAE dealings in Saudi Arabia, several other deals are being investigated, including a ship sale to Romania, the purchase of an air traffic control system by Tanzania, and aircraft deals in the Czech Republic and South Africa.
Britain tightened its arms exports rules under the 2002 Export Control Act.
Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy plan to buy a combined 620 Eurofighters. Austria has also agreed to buy 18 of the jets.
