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THE US State Department has sent its special envoy for the Gulf to the region to discuss international diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to abandon its suspected quest for nuclear weapons.
The discussions come at a time when it has been suggested that the Obama administration should consider countering an Iranian threat by offering Middle East allies' protection under a 'nuclear umbrella'.
Such a security guarantee would assuage widespread fears about Iran's nuclear programme among its neighbours, sources in Washington say.
Mr Ross arrived in Bahrain on Sunday on a mission which is also taking in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar.
Deputy King Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa received him at Riffa Palace and the official Bahrain News Agency said the meeting affirmed Bahrain's 'endeavours to reinforce dialogue and appease regional tension'.
US Special Envoy for the Middle East Dennis Ross has been accompanied on his visit to Bahrain and its neighbours by the deputy commander of US Central Command, Lt. Gen. John R Allen and National Security Council official, Puneet Talwar.
David Edginton, Deputy Public Affairs Officer at the US Embassy in Bahrain, told GulfWeekly: 'The aim of this trip is to further advance President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's commitment to renewed diplomacy in the region and ongoing consultations with allies and friends.'
An official from the UAE, who spoke earlier to the Bloomberg international news agency on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity, said the notion that the US would threaten to retaliate with nuclear weapons should its Gulf allies come under attack would have a powerful deterrent effect on an Iranian weapons programme.
But expanding the military guarantee to the Middle East would mark a foreign policy shift with wide consequences in an area central to world energy markets.
The US currently extends the protection of its nuclear arms to its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies, Japan, South Korea and Australia.
'There is no doubt in my mind that the US nuclear umbrella has prevented proliferation and deterred conflict,' said William Tobey, former deputy administrator at the National Nuclear Security Administration under former President George W Bush's administration. 'Decisions on including additional countries under extended deterrence need to be taken with great care,' added Tobey, now a senior fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Another arms-control expert said it would be premature and counterproductive to offer nuclear deterrence to Iran's neighbours.
'It would make many feel that Iran is justified in wanting to continue enriching uranium, because the US would be seen to be threatening Iran with nuclear weapons,' suggested George Perkovich, director of the non-proliferation programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
Iran refuses to comply with United Nations demands that it suspend its enrichment effort and open its nuclear facilities more fully to inspection. The Iranian government says its programme is legitimate work towards a nuclear energy industry.
The Obama administration recently announced that it plans to join China, Russia and European allies in talks with Iran to block possible development of a nuclear bomb. The step came as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he would welcome 'sincerity' in engagement from President Obama.
Clinton said during a debate last year that Arab allies should be given 'deterrent backing' by the US.
Last month, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy released a report raising the idea of extended deterrence as a possible counter to an Iranian threat. Mr Ross, a former Washington Institute fellow and now the Obama administration's special adviser for the Gulf and Southwest Asia, signed the report.
