US pushes PG states for missile system

“It's the United States' goal, to encourage the [P]GCC countries ([Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council) to develop this missile defense architecture,” a senior US official said prior to Washington’s negotiations with the six Arab states in New York on Friday.

“To be able to defend against a missile in your territory often requires radars and other types of capabilities outside your territory," he added.

The American official expressed optimism that the Persian Gulf states will sign contracts to develop the missile system in the coming months.

The New York talks were held in line with a new strategic cooperation forum set up in March, which also led to Washington’s plan to hold drills near the Persian Gulf on September 16-27, in cooperation with 20 countries.

"I think that the important thing to understand is that if they are buying US missile defense equipment, it'll make it easier to knit that together, because by its nature, it'll be more inter-operable," the US official noted.

According to another US administration official, Washington seeks to put the security of the Strait of Hormuz under spotlight in an attempt to encourage the Persian Gulf states to develop the missile system.

The missile system would include the deployment of radars to boost the range of early warning coverage across the Persian Gulf, as well as launching command, control and communications systems that could exchange that information with missile interceptors whose triggers are controlled by individual countries.

Despite the purchase of such massive amounts of weapon systems, it is the US military forces that provide a core capability for ballistic missile systems in the Persian Gulf.