Threats in the Mideast Are Rising, CENTCOM Chief Says
ISIS-K will be able to launch attacks abroad in less than six months, Gen. Kurilla told lawmakers.
SAM SKOVE | MARCH 16, 2023
MIDDLE EAST INDUSTRY CHINA
From Chinese firms grabbing a larger share of regional arms sales to Iran’s nuclear efforts, the Middle East is becoming an increasingly challenging security environment, the U.S. general who oversees operations there said Thursday.
Chinese military exports have increased by 80 percent in a decade, said Gen. Michael Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command. In the Middle East, these sales have eaten into U.S. market share, said Kurilla, who put some of the blame on Pentagon red tape. While just five percent of U.S. foreign military sales “don’t go to plan,” Kurilla said, most of those cases are in the Middle East.
Chinese military sales representatives, by contrast, make things easy for buyers. They “open their entire catalog, they give them express shipping. They give them no end user agreement, and they give them financing,” Kurilla said, speaking at a hearing of the Senate Armed Forces Committee. “They’re much faster.”
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2023/03/threats-mideast-are-rising-centcom-chief-says/384120/
