Petrodollar rich Persian Gulf states to purchase more US manufactured armaments.

 

March 12, 2010 (Hamsayeh.Net) - Oil rich Persian Gulf state of UAE’s crown prince Mohammad bin Zayyed al Nuhayyan received US defense secretary Robert Gates in his luxury residence in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

 

Gates’ frequent visit to region aims at selling US manufactured arms to the Persian Gulf Arab states in return for their not too hard earned petrodollars. However, the US defence secretary claimed his real mission was to gather moral support from its allies against what it seems to be Iran’s unstoppable influence in the region.

 

The visit comes following the UAE’s recent skirmishes with Israel over the assassination of a Hamad official at a Dubai hotel in January. UAE police says it is absolutely confident that Israeli agents using forged foreign passports conducted the assassination and infringed on the country’s sovereignty. He US government is a staunch ally of the Israeli regime.

 

During his meeting with UAE officials Gates sought tougher sanctions against Iran. He told reporters after talks with UAE’s prince, that he saw broad support from some states in the Persian Gulf. ‘I think there is an understanding that we have to try this, this is the next step, the engagement policy served to expose the Iranian government to the rest of the world, in terms of its policies, for what it is,’ Gates told reporters. Incidentally, most other countries around the world particularly the ones with global presence including Brazil, Russia, China and Turkey stand against US’ plans for sanctions.

 

Robert Gates then compared Iran with the former apartheid regime in South Africa saying that sanctions did work against Pretoria at the time because of very broad international support. According to US defense secretary a same course of action must be taken against Iran. ‘There is similar support now against Iran and the prospects of success are certainly better than in a lot of other situations where sanctions have been applied,’ he said.