ANALYSIS – The new “Nexus of Evil” – one of the most serious potential catalysts to an expanded war in the Middle East is the escalating missile attacks on civilian shipping in the Red Sea by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
But it's not just Iran and its Houthi proxies involved in these attacks.
The former top U.S. commander for the Indo-Pacific says the Houthi terrorists may be using anti-ship ballistic missile technology that originated in Communist China.
U.S. Central Command confirmed that the Yemen-based Houthis “fired anti-ship ballistic missiles” at both commercial ships and western warships.
The Washington Times (WT) reported Retired Admiral Harry B. Harris, Jr. as saying:
“Where did the Houthis get this technology? Your guess is as good as mine … but China looms large as a possibility,” he said. He later qualified the remarks by saying the Houthis may not have acquired the high-tech missiles directly from China but rather via Iran, a major military supplier to the Houthis that has cultivated a burgeoning strategic relationship with Beijing.
“I'm not suggesting that China has deliberately or intentionally provided the Houthis with this capability — only that they are one of the few nations in the world which possesses this technology,” said Mr. Harris, a former chief of the Pentagon's Indo-Pacific Command. “You can draw your own conclusions.”
The retired admiral, speaking this week at a panel, urged Team Biden to pursue a more robust military response to deal with the surge of Houthi missile and drone attacks. So far, Joe Biden's weakness has only been encouraging greater attacks.
The brazen, escalating attacks have badly disrupted commercial shipping in one of the world's most strategic waterways.
Meanwhile, harkening back to George W. Bush's “Axis of Evil” which originally referred to Iran, Iraq and North Korea, “Harris spoke about what some describe as a rising axis of authoritarian powers involving China, Russia, Iran and North Korea challenging U.S. dominance.”
However, the former commander used slightly different terms to describe the new coalition when he said world events, including the Middle East conflict and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, are driving a “developing nexus” among the four authoritarian nations.
WT noted:
“World events are bringing them closer together,” he said. “The war in Ukraine makes [Russian President Vladimir] Putin desperate for sources of weapons resources and, quite frankly, diplomatic friends. … And the quest for technology is bringing North Korea into alignment with Russia and Iran into alignment with both.”
Some analysts say China has taken the most active role in promoting the axis in an effort to overturn the U.S.-led economic and political system created in the wake of World War II.
Harris, a Naval Academy graduate who served as U.S. ambassador to South Korea from 2018 to 2021, said Beijing cannot be trusted.
He added that China “doesn't keep its word, from its treaty with the British on Hong Kong to its human rights abuses against the Uyghurs and others, to commercial espionage, the weaponization of debt, and its quest to intimidate, isolate and finally dominate Taiwan.”
Harris also noted the recent Chinese military aggression toward the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, concluding that Beijing “seeks hegemony not only in East Asia but Greater Asia and beyond.”
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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