US deploys anti-Iran missiles in Gulf allies
US deploys missile shields in four Gulf allies in response to threat posed by Iran
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Tony Blair has given a robust defence of his conviction to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power, going as far to say that Iran seemed as big a threat to world peace as the Iraqi dictator seemed in 2003. |  |
Monday, 01, Feb 2010 05:13
By Matthew Champion.
The US has moved to reassure its allies in the Gulf over a perceived threat from a belligerent Iran by deploying missile shields in four countries.
Patriot missile shields are due to be installed in Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait, while the White House will also keep two ships in the Gulf capable of responding to Iranian missiles.
Saudi Arabia is set to receive help in putting together a 30,000-strong force to protect its oil installations as well.
The Obama administration's multilateral, diplomatic focus on responding to Iran's nuclear programme failed to bear fruit in 2009, with the deployment of the missiles representing a clear hardening of its stance.
The move is also being seen as an attempt to reassure Israel that Washington was not blind to the threat posed by Iran.
"Our first goal is to deter the Iranians," a source told the New York Times.
"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."
Despite Barack Obama's preference for diplomacy in relations with Tehran, the US, France and Britain still take a harder line with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime than Russia and China.
Ahead of attempts to create a new raft of targeted sanctions against Iran's Revolutionary Guard - believed to be the driving force behind the country's uranium enrichment programme - the hawks on both sides of the Atlantic have been lent support by former UK prime minister Tony Blair, still Middle East envoy for the quartet of the US, UN, EU and Russia.
Providing evidence to the Iraq inquiry in central London on Friday he same the world faced the "same problem" with Iran this year as it did with Iraq in 2003.
"The reason why I took, and still take, a very hard line on Iran and nuclear weapons is not just because of nuclear proliferation, it is because the nature of the Iranian regime makes me even more worried about the prospect of them with a nuclear device," he argued.
He went on to say: "When I look at the way that Iran today links up with terror groups and this is a different topic for a different day, but I would say that a large part of the destabilisation in the Middle East at the present time comes from Iran.
"The link between Iran, having nuclear weapons capability, and those types of terrorist organisations, it is the combination of that that makes them particularly dangerous."
President Ahmadinejad has repeatedly insisted Iran's nuclear programme is for civilian energy projects only.
Confidential blueprints obtained by the west have strongly suggested the country is attempting to acquire parts required to construct an atomic bomb, however, while last year Tehran admitted it had built a previously-secret enrichment facility near Qom without informing the international community.