Middle East A Deadly New Missile Game

Throughout the region, the pressure is on to upgrade arsenals

Now that the superpowers have agreed to eliminate medium-range missiles from their arsenals, these weapons are fast turning into the most sought-after items in the Middle East. In the process, they are changing the nature of warfare in one of the world's most volatile regions. True, the missiles being stockpiled by seven Middle Eastern nations (Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Syria) are not yet nuclear -- with the highly probable exception of Israel's. But the conventionally armed weapons have figured prominently in the eight-year-old gulf war between Iraq and Iran, and they threaten to make future conflicts in...

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