Gates: Persian Gulf countries must coordinate to counter Iranian threat

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Defense Secretary Robert Gates planned to tell Gulf countries Saturday they must work together to help the US counter Iranian threats, including Tehran's ballistic missiles and meddling in Iraq. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States still wants new sanctions. Gates, ending a weeklong trip to the region, intended in his keynote speech at an international security conference in Manama to urge Gulf allies to cooperate more as part of a broader strategy for containing Iranian influence, according to US officials traveling with Gates on Friday. Gates' speech was to follow Rice's assertions Friday in Brussels, Belgium, that Washington would continue along a two-track strategy, pressing for new sanctions against Iran while holding talks to persuade Tehran to come clean about its nuclear program.