Les agences de renseignement américaines ont évalué que l’Arabie saoudite fabrique désormais activement ses propres missiles balistiques avec l’aide de la Chine, a appris CNN, un développement qui pourrait avoir des effets d’entraînement importants à travers le Moyen-Orient et compliquer les efforts de l’administration Biden pour restreindre les ambitions nucléaires de l’Iran, premier rival régional des Saoudiens.
Saudi Arabia is known to have purchased ballistic missiles from China in the past but has never been able to build its own — until now, according to three sources familiar with the latest intelligence. Satellite images obtained by CNN also suggest the Kingdom is currently manufacturing the weapons in at least one location.
US officials at numerous agencies, including the National Security Council at the White House, have been briefed in recent months on classified intelligence revealing multiple large-scale transfers of sensitive ballistic missile technology between China and Saudi Arabia, according to two sources familiar with the latest assessments.
The Biden administration is now confronted with increasingly urgent questions about whether Saudi’s ballistic missile advancements could dramatically change regional power dynamics and complicate efforts to expand the terms of a nuclear deal with Iran to include restraints on its own missile technology — a goal shared by the US, Europe, Israel and Gulf countries. LINK TO ARTICLE
