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Iran has offered its Gulf Arab neighbors cooperation in ballistic missile development and control. Iran has briefed the six Gulf Cooperation Council states on the prospect of military cooperation with Teheran. Officials said Teheran was ready to replace the United States as the guarantor of regional stability. "We welcome our neighbors," Iranian professor Abu Mohammed Asgharani said. "On ballistic missiles and nuclear energy, we would be happy to see you establish a regional laboratory to work on both conventional and peaceful energy." In an address to a nuclear technology conference in Manama, Asgharani said Teheran was willing to brief GCC...

The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council are quietly accepting the prospect that Iran would acquire nuclear weapons. Officials said the Persian Gulf states and other Arab League members would learn to accommodate Teheran's domination of the region. "This assessment has been shared with Israel, which today is the only country in the Middle East that wants to stop the Iranian nuclear program," an official said. Officials said the assessment has formed a major element in the strategy toward Iran by the administration of President Barack Obama. They said Israel...

Russia arms industry is pushing hard for a major breakthrough into the lucrative Gulf market at the Doha International Maritime Defense Exhibition in Qatar, the only navy-oriented defense showcase in the Middle East. Qatar's Peninsula newspaper reported that defense analysts are "saying that market demand for maritime defense in the region is expected to reach more than $30 billion in the next 20 years." Saudi Arabia is looking for new frigates but it has been buying them from France for decades and is likely to do so again. Like the United Arab Emirates, it has been building up its naval...

A new platform ordered by the U.S. Navy could play a key role in any war against Iran. The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments said the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) could play a major role in U.S. Navy operations in the Gulf. The center, in a report by Martin Murphy, said LCS could conduct such operations as interception and boarding, convoy protection and attack missions. "The LCS's tactical speed allows for rapid interception of potentially threatening Iranian boat swarms before they can close within weapons range of shipping in wider areas of the Gulf and the southern approaches to...

Iran has focused its intelligence efforts on the U.S. military presence in the Gulf. The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Iran was bolstering intelligence operations against the American military presence in Iraq and Gulf Cooperation Council states. The community said Teheran was also using its proxies to spy on American troops. "Iran is enhancing its focus on U.S. intelligence activities and relies on foreign intelligence partnerships to extend its capabilities," the intelligence community said in a report. The Teheran regime has been expanding intelligence operations through such proxies as Hamas, Hizbullah and Venezuela. The report, titled "Annual Threat Assessment,"...

Israeli air force have practiced simulated strikes at Iran's nuclear facilities using airspace of at least two unidentified Arab countries, a newspaper published in east Jerusalem reported. According to Al Manar paper, several Israeli combat jets carried out in late February bombing drills "targeting" known Iranian nuclear sites "in two Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, which are close territorially with the Islamic republic and cooperate with Israel on this issue." Al Manar said Israel had received the permission to use the airspace from the top leadership of these countries and Washington "gave a blessing" to Tel Aviv to conduct...

Israel has been urged to support U.S. arms exports to the Gulf Cooperation Council. A report by the Institute for National Security Studies asserted that Israel could benefit from U.S. defense exports to the six GCC states. Authored by researcher Yiftah Shapir, the report said Israel could better intercept ballistic missiles from Iran if similar defense systems were sold to Gulf Arab militaries. "Information from such systems deployed in the Persian Gulf may contribute to early warning about missiles launched at Israel," the report, titled "The United States and the Buildup of Military Force in the Persian Gulf," said. The...

00:31 Israeli banks urge Americans to close investment accounts in Israel (TheMarker)

The Secret History Part I: The C-802 Cruise Missile: Iran’s Threat in the Persian Gulf 05 March 2010 Written by Joseph Trento Scores are still being settled from the Iran Iraq War in the 1980s. It is no wonder. If anyone has any doubt about Iran’s ruthless use of all its human resources at the Mullahs’ disposal, let me describe for you what I witnessed on the marshes in the swamps along the Shatt Al Arab near Al Qurna, Iraq, in February 1984 when CNN sent me to cover the Iran Iraq War. As I approached the front on an...

With defense and acrimony building in the Persian Gulf, Iran announced plans to test a new laser-guided bomb. Iran's Fars News Agency reported that a prototype of the 2,000-pound smart bomb would be tested "in the near future," the country's air force commander Brig. Gen Hassan Shahsafi said. He said the smart bomb, dubbed Qassed-2, had a longer range and better vision than its earlier version, the Qassed-1. That weapon made its debut four years ago and has since then been in mass production. Qassed is interpreted as "messenger." It was not immediately clear how advanced the prototype is and...

The Iranian Navy sent its first domestically built destroyer, the Jamaran, to sea today. Apparently this is the "destroyer" that Iran announced it was building three years ago. No further details were given at the time, or since. It was known that Iran had launched a clone of their British made Vosper Mk 5 frigates in 2002. That 1,500 ton ship has been fitting out ever since. Four Vosper frigates were delivered in the early 1970s, and at least three are still in service. Actually, these are considered "corvette" type ships, as destroyers tend to displace over 7,000 tons. The...

President Barack Obama has launched a wave of high-stakes US diplomacy in the Middle East as Washington seeks to ratchet up pressure on Iran over its nuclear program. Obama has enlisted his top deputies in the diplomatic drive to isolate Tehran and impose stricter sanctions on the regime, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, chief military officer Admiral Mike Mullen and senior diplomats travelling to the region this week and Vice President Joe Biden due next month. Clinton signaled the administration's tougher tone during a visit to the Gulf, warning on Monday that Iran was turning into a “military dictatorship”...

U.S. intelligence officials appear to have obtained access to what could turn out to be a significant trove of phone numbers, photographs and documents detailing the links between Al Qaeda's leaders in northwest Pakistan and the terror group's increasingly menacing affiliate in Yemen, two counter-terrorism sources tell Declassified. In late January, an Al Qaeda operative headed from Pakistan on his way to Yemen was arrested in the Persian Gulf country of Oman, a U.S. counter-terrorism official confirmed. There has been no public announcement of the arrest. But in a possible indication of the operative's importance, just a few days later,...

Two Israeli missile boats reportedly passed through the Suez Canal Thursday morning, according to Arab media reports over the weekend. Egyptian authorities reportedly adopted strict security measures to ensure the ships' safety. According to the reports, the two Navy ships traveled through the canal en route to the Red Sea.The sources did not provide the exact ultimate destination of the missile boats. However, Egyptian maritime sources quoted in the Arab media estimated that both ships were headed to the Persian Gulf and may reach it within four days. The veracity of these estimates is unclear. The sail through the Suez...

As Israel keeps threatening the regional countries with war, Egyptian maritime sources say the Israeli navy has deployed two missile ships to the Persian Gulf. Citing the sources, Yediot Ahronot reported Saturday that two Israeli missile ships passed through the Suez Canal en rout to the Red Sea on Thursday morning. The sources said the ships are expected to reach the Persian Gulf within the next four days. According to the report, Cairo adopted tight security measures to ensure the safe passage of the Israeli ships through the canal.

Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi opened two new missile production plants on Saturday, just three days after Iran fired a rocket carrying live animals into space, state television reported. The plants will produce a ground-to-air missile dubbed the Qaem (Rising) and a surface-to-surface missile dubbed Toofan 5 (Storm), state television reported. The Qaem is designed to target helicopters at low and medium altitudes, it added. Iran unveiled the new plants as part of its celebrations for the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution later this month. On Wednesday, Iran launched a capsule carrying turtles, rats and worms aboard its Kavoshgar 3...

WASHINGTON - Bahrain’s foreign minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa acknowledged that Gulf military defenses were being upgraded but urged Iran not to see them as plans for attack. During a press conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Shaikh Khalid did not specify what security measures were being taken but appeared to confirm reports about a stronger US military presence in the region. US newspapers said the Obama administration is placing ships with missile-targeting capabilities off Iran’s coast, and anti-missile systems in at least four Gulf states — Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE. The reported moves...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- The United States has speeded movement of anti-missile defenses to the Persian Gulf to put pressure on Iran, government officials say. Four countries in the region have accepted U.S. missile defense systems, and Aegis cruisers have been deployed, The New York Times reported Saturday. The move began under President George W. Bush but has recently been accelerated by President Obama. Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, discussed the deployment in a rare public forum at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington on Jan. 22. He did not name the countries...

Iran has reported a naval buildup in the Gulf. Officials said Western and allied forces have deployed scores of warships in the Gulf and Arabian Sea. They said nearly 100 warships have been conducting operations, many of which appear to be directed against Iran. "The Westerners know well that the existence of these warships in the Persian Gulf serve as the best operational targets for Iran if they should want to undertake any military action against Iran," Iranian Defense Minister Ahmed Vahidi said. Vahidi, in an address on Jan. 19, said more than 90 foreign warships were detected in the...

Iran has warned that it will strike Western warships stationed in the Gulf if it is attacked over its nuclear program. The country's defense minister, Ahmad Vahidi said that the 90 warships stationed in the Persian Gulf -- a waterway crucial for world oil supplies -- would become targets if Iran was attacked. Vahidid said that the vessels included submarines, aircraft carriers and destroyers, according to comments published by the semi-official Fars news agency.