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What was Gates’
Middle East tour aimed at?
Posted By Emma Sabry
Western and Arabic media stated several reasons for the U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ Middle East tour. Although Defense officials said the official aim of the visit was to counter Iranian influence in the region and drum up support for the Iraqi government, there seemed to be other hidden motives.
Gates’ tour, which started on Monday, took him to Jordan, Egypt, Israel and ended yesterday with an unannounced visit to Iraq after a series of deadly bomb attacks in Baghdad killed at least 200 people on Wednesday.
The fact that this is the Defense Secretary’s third trip to the Middle East since he took office last December indicate that Iraq’s deteriorating situation, Iran’s nuclear program and the larger Middle East dominate his work in the Pentagon.
In Egypt and Jordan, Gates sought to rally support for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government in order to prevent “Iranian dominance of the region,” an unidentified U.S. Defense official told the Los Angeles Times.
"We hope to hear they would continue their support for the Maliki government," he said. "We truly believe that is the most important way to mitigate Iranian pressure."
The officials’ comments indicate that the Bush administration wants Arab and Gulf states to continue to oppose what Washington charges is Iran's quest for nuclear weapons and support for the resistance groups Hezbollah, in Lebanon, and Hamas, in the occupied Palestinian territories.
But an article on the London-based al-Hayat daily argued that the U.S. wants to create an Egyptian-Jordanian alliance against Iran and at the same time ensure that Cairo and Amman would contain the repercussions of a feared U.S. attack against Tehran’s nuclear facilities.
Although the Americans continue to deny that they’re planning to attack Iran, there remains a "misleading diplomacy to spread rumors of assurances over Tehran" -- perhaps to use the element of surprise to strike the Islamic Republic, the daily said.
"It seems the American coordination with Amman and Cairo is important to contain the repercussions of such a strike,” it argued.
Washington’s campaign against Iran was also the focus of Gates’ talks with Israeli officials. “The first thing that the secretary will want to do will be reassure Israel vis-à-vis the Iranian issue and the nuclear issue,” a senior U.S. Defense Department official told AFP before Gates arrived in Israel.
Gates also sought to allay Israeli concerns over Washington’s possible sale of advanced weaponry to Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, arguing that helping “friendly Gulf states” boost their arms could curb Iran’s influence in the region.
Israel, which is believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, is particularly concerned that the possible transfer of precision-guided weapons to Saudi Arabia could erode its military superiority in the region. The U.S. has sold such weapons to Israel, which used them last year in its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, but has never sold them to any other country in the region.
"The Israeli complaints have introduced a new uncertainty into the administration's plan to beef up Persian Gulf militaries as a bulwark against Iran and as a demonstration that, no matter what happens in Iraq, Washington remains committed to the Sunni Arab governments around the region," The Times reported earlier this month.
Analysts say the U.S. arming of its Gulf allies could have possible complications for the American alliance with Israel, which is formally shunned by most of the Arab world. This is why Gates reaffirmed a long-standing U.S. commitment to maintaining Israel's military superiority during his visit, while stressing that Israel’s fears over Washington bolstering its Gulf Arab allies were misplaced.
Despite the assurances, Israel is still concerned the Bush administration's plan for a U.S.-Sunni-Israeli coalition allied against Iran might not materialize. But it seems that the Bush administration is determined to form such an alliance, further raising fears that it would resort to military force to curb Iran’s nuclear program, a move that would alienate Washington's allies in a region already suffering from two U.S.-initiated wars and a decades-old conflict with Israel.
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