Editor’s Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.
 THAAD test |
The United States plans to deploy an anti-missile defense system in the oil-rich Gulf Arab states to guard against a possible Iranian missile attack that could include conventional or nuclear warheads, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
The anti-missile shield would be a unified missile defense system that would provide protection to the entire region from Kuwait in the northern Gulf to Oman on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
Protected would be the Gulf Arab states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The fact that senior U.S. officials are reviewing the proposal that would supplement security already provided by U.S. bases in the Gulf concedes the inability short of war of halting Iran’s possible nuclear weapons development program.
Installing such an anti-missile defense shield also may give the U.S. the opportunity to undertake a strategy of withdrawing U.S. military forces.
At the same time it would permit more of a balancing of regional powers like Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia and permit them to check each other.
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For its part, Israel already has the Hetz, or Arrow, anti-missile defense system to counter long-range missiles such as the Shahab-3 from Iran and any missiles from the Arab states.
It also will have operational next year the Peretz, designed to intercept short-range missiles such as Katyusha and Qassam rockets, which were fired by Hezbollah into Israel during the 34-day 2006 war.
In addition, Israel as well as some of the Arab countries have U.S. Patriot batteries used for short- and intermediate-range missiles.
At a high level security meeting last week in Bahrain, senior U.S. officials promoted the idea of an anti-missile defense shield for the Gulf Arab countries to guard against Iranian missiles.
The meeting included U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Mary Beth Long and Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command, which has security responsibility for the Middle East and portions of Central Asia.
According to officials, the United Arab Emirates, or UAE, will become the first country other than the U.S. to deploy the advanced anti-missile system called THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense.
It is expected to become operational in 2010.
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