A SAUDI-PAKISTANI SYMBIOSIS

A worrisome new WMD relationship in emerging between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. According to the current issue of worldtribune.com’s Geostrategy-Direct newsletter (week of June 2nd), Islamabad and Riyadh have developed an extensive partnership in the fields of nuclear development and ballistic missiles. Pakistan provides atomic know-how to Saudi Arabia in exchange for funds to develop its ballistic missile program. This symbiosis has helped Pakistan’s development of a long-range ballistic missile capable of striking the entirety of neighboring India, while Saudi Arabia has moved closer to acquiring a nuclear infrastructure and becoming a nuclear power, the newsletter reports.

VULNERABLE INDIA EYES ISRAELI DEFENSES

Escalating tensions with rival Pakistan have revived New Delhi’s focus on missile defense. The May 30th issue of the Times of India featured an interview with Indian defense analyst Bharat Karnad, who underscored that India has no protection against the nuclear-capable “Ghuari” ballistic missile recently tested by Islamabad. While the Indian government has acquired several units of the Russian S-300 air defense system, the country so far lacks comprehensive theater missile defenses, according to Karnad. Such defenses can only be obtained through the acquisition of Israel’s Arrow-2 system, which can detect missiles from 500 kilometers away and intercept them at a distance of 50-90 kilometers, the defense analyst stressed.

CRACKS IN FRANCE’S ANTI-NMD CONSENSUS

A leading defense expert has broken ranks with the French government’s anti-missile defense stance. “France has made political, technical, and financial objections to the American antimissile shield that seem groundless and that reflect a misunderstanding of actual world conditions,” writes Bernard Lavarini, a former advisor to Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, in the May 28th issue of Le Monde. America’s drive toward missile defenses, however, reflects a new “strategic posture” under which Washington will not face “the dilemma of whether to capitulate or to engage in a war in which massive numbers of civilians would be slaughtered.” Instead of doing nothing, Paris should follow suit and engage other regional nations in the creation of a European anti-missile shield, the defense expert concludes.

LATEST PATRIOT TEST STUMBLES

Agence France Presse (May 31) reports that the most recent test of the advanced Patriot theater missile defense system has again yielded mixed results. The trial, conducted on May 30th at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, entailed the neutralization of a ballistic missile by two interceptors from a PAC-3 system. While the missile was effectively neutralized, “not all test objectives were met,” according to a statement from the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency. “The second PAC-3 missile failed to launch. Analysis of why the second missile failed to launch is ongoing.” The faulty intercept is only the latest in a series of setbacks to the Defense Department’s Patriot program. Three of the system’s four operational tests have been plagued by problems.

ONE STEP FORWARD IN THE BALKANS...

As part of its bid to join NATO, Bulgaria has inked an agreement with Washington to destroy its ballistic missile arsenal. Under the deal, signed by U.S. Ambassador James Pardew and Bulgarian Defense Minister Nikolai Svinarov in Sofia, the country’s 100-plus Soviet-era SS-23, SCUD and “Frog” rockets will be dismantled, the Associated Press (June 2) reports. Explaining the Bulgarian government’s rationale for the move, Pardew declared that the missiles “no longer have regional military value, they are an unnecessary cost to Bulgarians, and they represent an obstacle to Bulgaria's strategic goals of joining Western defensive and economic structures.”

...AND ONE STEP BACK IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The regime of Bashar Assad is dramatically increasing the threat potential of one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups, Middle East Newsline (June 3) reveals. According to Israeli defense sources cited by the news agency, Syria has begun providing long-range Katyusha rockets to Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist organization. Damascus reportedly commenced the shipments in early April, following a slowdown in arms assistance to the group from Iran. The 70-kilometer range rockets, of which an undisclosed quantity have already been delivered, make Hezbollah capable of striking anywhere in northern Israel.

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