Story by Anika Arora Seth,
Shelby Holliday,
Vera Bergengruen
MSN
Senior U.S. officials have responded by trying to #avoid public confrontations with Beijing that could overshadow or derail plans for the summit. A #WhiteHouse official said no assistance Iran was receiving from outside #actors had enhanced its ability to attack the U.S., without addressing the finding.
Publicly, senior Trump #administration officials have played down the impact of any Chinese assistance to #Iran. Days after the July 17 #attack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Asked afterward if the Chinese were providing Iran with targeting #information, he declined to answer directly, saying “nothing that China has done has in any way changed the trajectory of the conflict.”
Earlier in the war, U.S. attacks on Iranian radar, satellites and other equipment degraded the regime’s ability to see the battlefield. Iran often hit locations of lesser military significance where nothing significant was located—an indication that Iran didn’t have a clear picture of U.S. bases.
However, the targeting appeared to improve over the summer, officials say.
Fresh, high-resolution images from Chinese sources could reveal recent changes at a base and help Iran “select the most impactful targets in a timely manner,” said Jim Lamson, a former #CIA analyst who specialized in Iran’s military and weapons.