The Muwaffaq Salti Air Base (MSAB), located near Azraq in eastern Jordan, is a major U.S. and Jordanian military hub. On July 17th it came under Iranian ballistic‑missile and drone attack. Three U.S. service members were killed and others were injured. Significant damage was inflicted on several hangers on the base.
On July 20th Iran released remarkably detailed, high-resolution, satellite images showing both before and after.
Of course, Iran does not have such satellites in orbit. It appears that the images came from an unnamed Chinese entity. No U.S. official havsidentified the allegedly involved Chinese entities. No official has accused Beijing of direct participation. And no one has publicly released their evidence. China’s embassy responded by demanding proof and accusing critics of “maliciously linking and smearing other countries.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi only days after the strike. When asked afterward whether China had supplied targeting intelligence, Rubio carefully said only that “nothing China did altered in any way the course of the conflict.” Interesting language indeed.
In late July the Yaogan 50-02 experienced an anomalous disassembly event. The Yaogan satellites are a series of Chinese spy satellites. The break-up event resulted in at least 47 detected debris objects. The Yaogan 50-02 was launched on March 5th of this year.
Let’s be reminded that on July 20th, PDJT tweeted, “Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!”
Now, to be fair, there is no proof that America had anything to do with the spontaneous disassembly of the very expensive Yaogan 50-02.
Jeff Childers notes:
This is not a slip-and-fall-in-Walmart lawsuit. Spooks don’t send preservation letters. Nobody produces the orbital equivalent of Ring-camera footage. In this kind of diplomacy, both governments need room to deny everything —China so it does not have to retaliate, America so China does not have to retaliate, and everybody else so the United Nations can hold a sternly worded meeting about responsible management of space debris without mentioning any particular space behavior.
The message only works when the recipient understands it perfectly and the public cannot prove it. The diplomatic translation is: You made your point. Remember all those midwestern chicken farms and oil refineries that kept mysteriously catching fire during the Biden Administration while we were helping Ukraine target Russia’s oil refineries? It’s like that.
Are there any more dots in this story? It turns out that the WSJ recently published a story, “Exclusive – U.S. Links Chinese Satellite Imagery to Iranian Strike That Killed Three Troops”
This story pulls together the pieces described above. I dare say that this is a sanctioned, official leak from someone with direct knowledge of the goings on. It was given to America’s premier financial and diplomatic newspaper shortly before Trump is expected to meet Xi. That meeting is scheduled for September 24th. Coincidence? I think not.
This is not old-fashioned diplomacy. It is a lot more concise than that. Actions always speak a lot louder than mere words. And, if indeed this is what happened, this would have required presidential authority.