Congress doubles down on Middle East defense architecture in NDAA markups

Congress doubles down on Middle East defense architecture in NDAA markups

WASHINGTON — The Senate’s Armed Services Committee advanced its version of next year’s defense spending bill on Friday with measures that lawmakers hope will continue building cooperation between Middle Eastern states to counter threats by Iran.

The Senate’s version builds on the current National Defense Authorization Act in calling on the Biden administration to improve maritime security and naval interdictions in the Persian Gulf amid continued arms smuggling, ship seizures and maritime drone strikes by Iran.

This year’s NDAA already requires the Pentagon to report to Congress on US efforts to build an integrated air and missile defense architecture between Middle Eastern countries designed to neutralize Iranian projectile attacks.

The Senate’s version of next year’s bill would further require Pentagon officials to provide updates on the effort, which has made significant strides over the past several months but remains limited by reluctance to share sensitive intelligence between some Arab militaries in the Gulf region.

The Senate’s bill would also require the Biden administration to improve regional cybersecurity cooperation between the US and Middle Eastern states, building off an earlier measure that sought to further military cybersecurity support for Jordan.

It would further direct the Biden administration to assess what benefits Iran may be receiving in