15 December 2008: Middle East Times
MANAMA -- The United States wants to see the oil rich Gulf states purchase, install and join a unified missile defense system that would provide complete aerial coverage to the entire region, from Kuwait in the northern Gulf to Oman on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
"Something not unlike NORAD," said a high-ranking U.S. official who is directly involved in the planning of this project, and who asked not to be named.
NORAD, or the North American Aerospace Defense Command, is a joint Canadian-U.S. early warning tracking system designed to give North America early detection of any airborne object that is intended to strike.
The United State places much on these oil-rich Arab states.
Several high ranking U.S. military and political officers attending a top-level security conference in Bahrain capital, including U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of CENTCOM and others promoted the idea, saying that such a project would be primarily aimed at deterring Iran from launching missiles, be they nuclear or conventional ones.
The U.S. official who spoke to the Middle East Times said this type of system would be paramount to maintaining the security in the Gulf.
Gen. Petraeus said it was important to expand existing Arab missile coverage.
Addressing the closing session of the Manama Dialogue conference, Petraeus, head of Central Command – CENTCOM – whose area of responsibility includes Iraq and Afghanistan, said that besides the threat of missile attack from Iran, the region faces a number of challenges. Among those, Petraeus singled out the continued danger that al-Qaida and its affiliates continue to pose to the region.
Speaking at the event, which was organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies relating to security in the Gulf region, Petraeus said some progress has nevertheless been made, particularly in Saudi Arabia, where after an initial set back several years ago, when corps sympathetic to, or acting on behalf of al-Qaida launched a terror campaign throughout the kingdom.
The Saudi leadership were quick to react. They accelerated training of special anti-terrorist groups which they speedily deployed throughout the kingdom. Together with an aggressive advertising campaign across the country, the Saudi royal family was able to defeat the attempts by takfiri groups of extremists to overthrow the royal family.
Petraeus warned that "the extremist networks remain resilient." Without naming any countries, it was obvious, nevertheless, that the general was thinking of Iran when he spoke of threats emanating from states in the region who seek to provoke tension.
And again without naming names, Petraeus apparently pointed at Syria, saying that some nations in the region are playing a dangerous game thinking they may be immune from terrorism because at onetime they may have supported them. But as we have seen in the past, there are no guarantees that terrorist groups will not turn on their former masters and one-time allies.
Some nations in the region, said a Western diplomat, have a hard time dealing with the reality of life. The challenges are multiform and the responses equally various.
