WASHINGTON, May 28, (Agencies): The Oba-ma administration is working toward a Middle East missile defense that envisions adding an advanced radar site in a Gulf state to one already in Israel to thwart any Iranian attack, US officials said.
The Obama administration has been quietly helping Arab states boost their missile defenses with the goal of tying them into one system. The process could take two or three more years, officials said.
The emerging Middle East plan resembles the “phased adaptive approach” President Barack Obama rolled out with much fanfare last September to integrate sea- and land-based missile defenses in and around US Nato allies in Europe.
The Middle East buildup has been played down because of Arab sensitivities about US military involvement and skittishness about any military cooperation with Israel, where the United States based a high-powered X-Band radar in 2008 to bolster Israel’s missile defenses.

US military strategists believe a second high-powered AN/TPY-2 transportable radar in a Gulf state would boost the capabilities of the proposed regional missile umbrella. A candidate country to host it has not yet stepped forward.
US officials want the new radar in the Gulf to be positioned in a location that would allow it to work with the AN/TPY-2 radar in southern Israel, which is operated by US personnel. Built by Raytheon Co, the system locks on to targets in their boost, midcourse and terminal phases.
“The idea (of a regional security umbrella) has been out there for a while but the specific pieces are now starting to fall into place,” a military official said.
A diplomat from the region called the approach “plug and play” — first the building blocks of the system are put in place, then they are linked together and turned on.
The only other deployed AN/TPY-2 system was set up in 2006 in Shariki, Japan, as a hedge against missiles that could be fired by North Korea.

Eliminate
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday the United States and other nuclear powers should “eliminate” their arsenals to be “convincing” in the standoff over Iran.
Erdogan, speaking at a UN conference on cross-cultural understanding in Rio, made the comment in the context of a deal Brazil and Turkey struck with Iran over its uranium stocks, and a US push for UN sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program.
“When we hear people talking about stopping Iran getting nuclear weapons — who are they to talk against the idea of having nuclear weapons!” Erdogan exclaimed.
“Those who talk like that should eliminate nuclear weapons from their own countries.... That’s the only way to be convincing,” he said.

“We will not manage to have world peace with the proliferation of nuclear arms.”
A bitter rift between the world’s top powers led by the United States and emerging nations Brazil and Turkey widened Thursday as differences over how to tackle Iran’s suspect nuclear program erupted into sharp exchanges.
Turkey accused critics of a deal brokered with Iran last week for a nuclear fuel swap of being “envious” of the “diplomatic success” it represented — in an implicit swipe at the United States.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged “very serious disagreements” with Brazil over its insistence that the deal it helped to draw up be considered before a US push for new UN sanctions against Iran is decided.
The row threatens to split the UN Security Council, on which the United States sits as a permanent, veto-wielding member alongside temporary members Brazil and Turkey.
It also highlighted the growing assertiveness of Brazil, Latin America’s biggest economy, and Nato member Turkey in carving out their own diplomatic tracks independently of the United States.
The United States accuses Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons under the cover of its atomic energy program, something Tehran denies.

Equipment
UN nuclear inspectors revisiting an Iranian laboratory to follow up on activities that could be linked to a secret nuclear weapons program recently discovered that some equipment believed used in the experiments has disappeared, diplomats said Friday.
One of the diplomats told The Associated Press that senior officials within the International Atomic Energy Agency — the UN nuclear watchdog — were concerned that the removal was an attempted cover-up.
Two others confirmed that some apparatus had gone missing. One said it was too early to draw conclusions, suggesting it could have been taken to another site for nothing more than maintenance. The three spoke on condition of anonymity because information surrounding the Iran nuclear probe is confidential.
At issue is pyroprocessing, a procedure that can be used to purify uranium metal used in nuclear warheads.
Iran in January confirmed to the agency that it had carried out pyroprocessing experiments, prompting a request from the nuclear agency for more information — but then backtracked in March in comments at a closed meeting of the IAEA’s governing board.
“In fact there is not pyroprocessing R&D activity and the question raised has been a misinterpretation by the Agency inspectors,” said an excerpt of the Iranian statement made available this week to the AP.
The experiments prompted IAEA experts to revisit the site — the Jabr Inb Jayan Multipurpose Research Laboratory in Tehran — where they found some of the equipment removed to an undisclosed site, said the diplomats. One of the two said the electrolysis unit used in separating out impurities from uranium metal was among the apparatus that had been removed. Another said chemical apparatus used in the process were now missing.

Iran’s foreign minister said on Friday he believed major powers were considering a proposed nuclear fuel swap positively, despite Washington’s condemnation of the move as a ploy by Tehran to avoid new sanctions.
Manouchehr Mottaki said the fuel exchange plan hammered out by Iran, Turkey and Brazil earlier this month would help build confidence and foster cooperation, instead of confrontation over the Islamic Republic’s disputed nuclear programme.
He told reporters in Sofia he had spoken to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the phone on Thursday, a day after Tehran and Moscow clashed over Kremlin support for draft UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
“We have discussed on this issue (the fuel exchange) and to my understanding I think the Vienna Group are considering (it) positively,” Mottaki said, referring to Russia, France and the United States.