NEW YORK – The United States and its Gulf partners are looking to deepen cooperation on missile defense as tensions rise with Iran, US officials said Friday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) officials in New York as Washington seeks to boost regional defenses against perceived Iranian threats. “Our aim is to help our Gulf partners with their defense needs ... there is a missile threat that they face, we want to help them face that threat as best they can,” one senior US official said. “We've had expressions of interest from our partners in the Gulf in additional missile defense capabilities,” the official said. “We hope that we will be having announcements in the near future regarding those expressions of interest.” Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon's top supplier by sales, received an initial $1.96 billion contract in December for two of its Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) weapon systems for the United Arab Emirates, the first foreign sale of the system. The United States has been working with Gulf states on a bilateral basis, not as a group, to boost the range of radar coverage and related capabilities across the Gulf for the earliest possible defense against any missiles fired by Iran. US officials said the ultimate goal is a regional shield that can be coordinated with US systems - parallel with Washington's drive to expand missile defense to protect NATO's European territory against ballistic missiles that could be fired by Iran. The officials said expanded security cooperation with the Gulf is already bearing fruit and pointed to recent joint anti-mining exercises by the navies of 12 countries. Plans for a joint missile shield have been on the table for some time. – Reuters
