US ramps up counter-WMD spending amid Mideast proliferation threats
The Pentagon is putting $6 million into countering weapons of mass destruction in five Middle Eastern countries, as US special operations forces take control of the fight.
The Donald Trump administration is spending $6 million on a handful of US allies in the Middle East to help keep mass-casualty bombs and chemical agents out of the hands of terrorists.
The Pentagon grants, detailed in recent congressional correspondence reviewed by Al-Monitor, are part of a $28 million package of train-and-equip funds used to help foreign militaries around the world stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Between 2014 and 2017, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Pentagon’s in-house agency formed a decade ago to counter weapons of mass destruction (WMD), allocated $17 million to help foreign militaries respond to dangerous incidents.
The $6 million Middle East carve-out will help Morocco, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon keep WMD out of the hands of violent extremists. US officials believe that all five countries are vulnerable to chemical, biological and other WMD attacks, according to congressional correspondence.
Justifying the assistance to Congress, the Defense Department specifically expressed concern that the Islamic State could cause an incident in Turkish cities or attack Jordan with chemical or biological agents. Pentagon officials are also worried about “frequent use of chemical and biological agents in or near Syria,” such as further chlorine gas attacks from President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, which could put Lebanese citizens at risk on the Syrian border.
