An administration official said it’s “very central to our strategy” to think about “how do we take that next step in disrupting Russia’s attempts to be able to produce the weapons systems, the industrial goods that it needs to prosecute its war?”
By Lee Ferran“No one can definitely say that Turkey wouldn’t buy the second batch,” one Ankara insider said. “But for now, it isn’t on the agenda.”
By Ragip Soylu“If anything, the provocations are coming from Beijing. The bullying behavior…is where the provocateurs lie, not with Taiwan [which is] maintaining its own self defense,” a top State Department official says.
By Paul McLearyNorway suspended new applications for military export licenses to Turkey today. Norway is also reviewing all current licenses for Turkey for military and multi-use military export licenses.
By Paul McLearyAn Israeli expert said that the critical question is, where will the Turks deploy the Russian system. “If it is deployed near the border with Syria it may endanger air forces that will attack Iranian controlled militias in Iraq,” the Israeli source says.
By Arie EgoziNo one is talking at DoD, State or the White House about today’s delivery of the Russian weapon system. Is the president considering looking the other way?
By Paul McLearyAnother US ally — and host of a critical Middle Eastern air base — is considering buying a high-tech Russian missile system. What can Washington do about it?
By Paul McLearyCAPITOL HILL: Defense Secretary James Mattis fired off a new letter to House Armed Services leadership on Tuesday, asking lawmakers again to vote in favor of waivers for certain countries Washington is trying to sway into its orbit, but who continue to do business with Russian defense firms. The letter was delivered to HASC chairman Rep.…
By Paul McLearyA slate of poorly understood new tariff and sanctions rules are complicating the Trump Administration’s own efforts to boost arms exports, even as sales of American-made weaponry blow past previous highs.
By Paul McLearyAs some Gulf and Asian allies consider big purchases of Russia arms, the Senate is set to uphold a law signed by Trump that would slap sanctions on them for cozying up with Moscow.
By Paul McLearyWASHINGTON: As the Japanese reacted vigorously today to North Korea’s firing of a missile over the northern island of Hokkaido, the head of the Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College argued in an article that the possession of nuclear weapons is actually helping to restrain Kim Jong-un’ s actions. In his article, James Forsyth, dean…
By Colin ClarkTHE WATERGATE: United we stand, Great Britain’s ambassador to the US insisted today. Despite all the strains on the Atlantic alliance — post-Snowden backlash against American spying, rising anti-EU sentiment in Britain, German dependence on Russian energy — the US, the UK, and their continental European allies stand together against what he called Russian “hybrid…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The Crimean crisis continues to escalate. Ukraine’s interim government in Kiev and every country except Russia refuses to recognize the Crimean referendum. Ukraine’s interim defense minister Igor Tenyukh called on Ukrainian troops based in Crimea — some barricaded on their bases and some now held hostage by Russian forces — to prepare for war just…
By Sally Painter and Job C. Henning
Donald Trump spirals downward. As long as he remains in the White House, we are called upon to do everything in our power to limit the damage he can do. Above all, there is the need to prevent a war of choice to disarm North Korea of its nuclear weapons. There are many reasons to…
By Michael Krepon