TENSION BETWEEN the US and Iran has heightened dramatically with the disclosure that Barack Obama is deploying a missile shield to protect US allies in the Gulf from attack by Tehran.
The US is dispatching Patriot defensive missiles to Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait and is keeping two ships in the Gulf capable of shooting down Iranian missiles. Washington is also helping Saudi Arabia to develop a force to protect its oil installations.
US officials say the move is aimed at deterring an attack by Iran and reassuring Gulf states fearful that Tehran might react to sanctions by striking at US allies in the region. Washington is also seeking to discourage Israel from a strike against Iran by demonstrating that the US is prepared to contain any threat.
The deployment comes after Mr Obama’s attempts to emphasise diplomacy over confrontation in dealing with Iran – in contrast to the Bush administration’s approach – failed to persuade Tehran to open its nuclear installations to international controls.
The White House is now trying to engineer agreement for sanctions focused on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, believed to be in charge of the atomic programme.
Washington has not formally announced deployment of the Patriots and other anti-missile systems but, by leaking it to US newspapers, the administration is evidently seeking to alert Tehran to a hardening of its position.
The administration is deploying two Patriot batteries, capable of shooting down incoming missiles, in each of the four Gulf countries. Kuwait already has an older version of the missile, deployed after Iraq’s invasion. Saudi Arabia has long had the missiles, as has Israel.
An unnamed senior administration official told yesterday’s New York Times: “Our first goal is to deter the Iranians. A second is to reassure the Arab states, so they don’t feel they have to go nuclear themselves, but there is certainly an element of calming the Israelis as well.”
The chief of the US central command, Gen David Petraeus, said in a speech 10 days ago that countries in the region were concerned about Tehran’s military ambitions and the prospect of Iran becoming a dominant power in the Gulf. “Iran is clearly seen as a very serious threat by those on the other side of the Gulf front.”
Gen Petraeus said the US was keeping cruisers equipped with advanced anti-missile systems in the Gulf at all times to act as a buffer between Iran and the Gulf states.
Washington is also concerned at the threat of action by Israel, which is predicting that Iran will be able to build a nuclear missile within a year, a much faster timetable than assessed by the US, and is warning that it will not let Tehran come close to completion if diplomacy fails.
CIA director Leon Panetta last week met Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other senior officials in Jerusalem to discuss Iran.
– (Guardian service)