A DOMESTIC CONSENSUS IN FAVOR OF MISSILE DEFENSE
President Obama has taken considerable flack in recent weeks after inadvertently publicly proposing to outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he will have more “flexibility” to compromise on missile defense - an enduring bone of contention between Moscow and Washington - after he secures his next term in office. The remarks, caught on a "hot" microphone at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, have reignited a public debate over the need for a U.S. missile defense system.
The results are now in, and they constitute a considerable vote in favor of greater anti-missile capabilities on the part of the American public. A recent national poll on the subject by Rasmussen found 55 percent of respondents to favor a national ballistic missile defense system, while only 16 percent opposed the further development of anti-missile capabilities by the United States. Twenty-nine percent of those polled were undecided. The poll also indicated that a majority of Americans believe a missile attack on the U.S. to be likely in the short term.(Rasmussen Reports, April 2, 2012)
ANOTHER ICBM FOR NORTH KOREA?
Last month, Congress was alerted to the fact that that North Korea was developing a road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile. New U.S. intelligence reports, however, now indicate that a different, larger and potentially longer-range ICBM is under development by the DPRK. The claim is corroborated by reports from South Korean government officials, who peg the new missile as the centerpiece of the thinly-disguised "satellite" launch Pyongyang plans to conduct in coming days. (Washington Times, April 4, 2012)
GULF STATES SEEK REGIONAL MISSILE SHIELD...
The mounting threat posed by Iran's maturing nuclear program and its burgeoning ballistic missile capabilities have reinvigorated discussions in the Persian Gulf about the development of a regional missile shield by the U.S. and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. According to Bahrain’s Foreign Minister, Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Khalifa, the development of an anti-missile architecture in the Gulf is “a way of sending a message” to Iran to dissuade it from potential military action against its regional neighbors. The six-nation bloc - which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates - met in late March to discuss prospects for missile defense cooperation with the U.S., and now plans to finalize details of the agreed-upon system in June.(Global Security Newswire, April 9, 2012)
...AS IRAN READIES ITS RESPONSE
Iran, for its part, has vehemently opposed missile defense development by the Gulf states, and called upon its "friends" to avoid participating in the notional system. Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi has claimed the missile defense architecture is a plan created jointly by the U.S. and Israel to further their claims that Iran is a threat to the region. Officials in Iran also have stated that development of the Persian Gulf missile system would actually be destabilizing and add insecurity to the region.
The Islamic Republic isn't confining itself to rhetoric, however. Senior Iranian defense officials claim they already have assets in place to counter the soon-to-be-developed Middle East missile defense system. Brigadier General Amir Ali-Hajizadeh, the commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, has said that Iran knew the U.S. would attempt to deploy a missile shield in the Gulf once the NATO shield now under development for Europe was operational. (Tehran IRNA, April 6, 2012; Tehran FARS, April 9, 2012)
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