Saudi Arabia builds its own missiles with the help of China, according to US intelligence tests and satellite imagery.
A U.S. intelligence agency checks that the state, which is thought to have long been found in Beijing, is now building its own, according to a source familiar with the matter and a U.S. official.
Satellite images obtained by NBC News also suggest that Saudi Arabia is producing missiles in the western part of the capital, Riyadh, according to researchers at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California.
“Significant evidence is that the institute uses the ‘burning pit’ to dispose of solid residues in the production of throwing arrows,” write Jeffrey Lewis and David Schmerler of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at Middlebury Institute. .
They added that the area “appears to have been built with Chinese assistance.”
The news was first reported by CNN on Thursday. Photos courtesy of marketing company Planet Labs PBC.
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The development may change security figures in the Middle East and further the bidenas’ bid to persuade Iran to renew its nuclear deal with world powers. It could also add another layer of complexity to Washington’s relationship with Beijing.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are regional enemies and there will be concerns that Riyadh’s production of ballistic missiles could reverse Tehran’s stance on possible negotiations aimed at renewing the 2015 agreement. The new development comes days before negotiations, which have been a struggle to do whatever it takes, are expected to resume in Vienna, and could make Iran less likely to drop its ballistic missiles.
“If Iran had entered into negotiations with its missile program, it would not have been able to accept international sanctions,” wrote Mark Fitzpatrick, a colleague at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, in a statement. an article about the Saudi Arabian missile program published by the institute in August.
Fitzpatrick, a former State Department official at the time, said that apart from the general desire to conform to Iran, Riyadh’s motives for obtaining ballistic missiles were not entirely clear. Unlike Tehran, however, Saudi Arabia is not known to initiate any work to develop its nuclear arsenal, he added.
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Ballistic missiles are rocket-propelled grenades that can carry conventional explosives and nuclear weapons.
However, the fact that Saudi Arabia is now known for making its own missile launchers will raise concerns about a speeding arms race in an already hotly contested region.
The Saudi News Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Britain on Friday criticized Iran’s ballistic missile launch in a military match this week.
“These actions are detrimental to regional and international security and call on Iran to immediately suspend its operations,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
In 2018, former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal and imposed a crippling sanction on Iran. Tehran has since reduced its compliance with the agreement, announcing that it will enrich uranium up to 60 percent purity – very close to the amount needed to make an atomic bomb.
In the past, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had made it clear that if Tehran made a nuclear bomb, Riyadh would do the same.
“Saudi Arabia does not want to get any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran makes a nuclear bomb, we will follow very quickly,” he told CBS in 2018.
The crown prince tries to turn Saudi Arabia from an oil-dependent nation into a widely accepted economic power base in the West.
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The Saudis have long been allies of the United States and enjoyed close ties with the Trump administration, but those efforts to fix the country’s image were thwarted by the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul in 2018.
At the same time, the ongoing close military ties between Saudi Arabia and China are likely to worry the Biden administration as they try to maintain strong and stable relations with Beijing, criticizing its human rights record while cooperating with Chinese leaders on major global threats. such as climate change and the Covid-19 epidemic.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Asked if it responded to these new indications that it had helped Saudi Arabia produce missile arrows, China said it had been opposed to the proliferation of destructive weapons and their delivery methods, and used strict control over export export and related technologies. a statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
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“China and Saudi Arabia are fully strategic partners,” the department said. “This cooperation does not violate any international law and does not involve an increase in weapons of mass destruction.”
He added that Beijing had been opposed to joint sanctions and would “continue to take necessary steps to protect its rights and interests.”
Saudi Arabia was known to have bought arrows from China in the past but had never built its own, a source familiar with the matter and an American official confirmed it.