Gates to Urge Cooperation Among Gulf Nations

At Bahrain Talks, Defense Secretary to Name Iran as One of the Threats Facing Region

MANAMA, Bahrain, Dec. 7 -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates will encourage Persian Gulf nations at a security conference Saturday to cooperate against common threats, including Iran, while assuring them that the United States will maintain a robust military presence in the region decades after it withdraws from Iraq, according to senior defense and military officials.

Gates will also discuss a recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iran that concluded the country had halted its nuclear weapons ambitions in 2003. Gates will stress that the report underscores the need for Iran to be more open about its nuclear program, a senior defense official said. "Iran owes the region and the world a transparent nuclear program," the official said.

Iranian officials decided at the last minute not to attend the security conference, known as the Manama Dialogue, where Gates is scheduled to give the keynote address Saturday morning.

Iran's provision of weapons, training and funding to insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, its nuclear program and its bellicose statements are disrupting the region, senior U.S. military officials who will attend the conference said Friday.

"Their behavior has really been a problem . . . to the extent that it destabilizes the region, which it does," said Adm. William J. Fallon, head of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East.

Gulf leaders are increasingly worried about what they see as Iran's efforts to control the region, Fallon said. "Their biggest concern, as they have tried to express it to me, is more the pressure that they feel from Iran, as they want to dominate this area," he said.

One of the main concerns raised by Iran's military power in the region is its "threat to attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz to normal merchant marine traffic," said Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.

Iran, which has the region's most powerful military, could potentially use mines, coastal cruise missiles, tactical aviation, submarines and ships to try to close the waterway, through which 45 percent of the world's oil trade flows, Cosgriff said. But Iran is unlikely to close the strait, not only because it would be considered an act of war but also because it would harm Iran's economy, he said in an interview with reporters traveling with Gates.

Instead, Cosgriff said, Iran's talk of closing the strait is "intended to intimidate not only the regional nations . . . but to intimidate the global market, and I just don't think that's responsible behavior."

Gulf nations need to step up cooperation to address a variety of threats, said a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Such cooperation would be particularly beneficial in two areas: communication among the countries, as well as a shared early-warning system to defend against ballistic missiles, the official said.

"The ballistic-missile issue for this region is one that is severe and one that literally impacts the region because this is a small and fairly dense neighborhood," the official said. An early-warning system would involve developing "a common picture and a common defense so that the first sign that a ballistic missile went off isn't someone calling up and saying, 'Duck!' " the official said.

In the long run, U.S. officials said they hope that Iran will join a regional security framework.

Currently, the main U.S. forces in Bahrain and the Gulf are air and naval, part of a multinational force of about 45 ships that patrol the area.

Countries in the region are seeking to conduct more military exercises with the United States, a senior military official said. One benefit of withdrawing some U.S. ground forces from Iraq is that those troops could participate in such exercises, the official said.