Special to WorldTribune.com

Geostrategy-Direct.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has drafted plans to sell weapons to the Gulf Cooperation Council’s regional force.

Officials said the Defense Department has offered to fulfill the requirements of the GCC’s Peninsula Shield, meant to protect the six Gulf Arab states from external threats. They said the Pentagon envisioned block sales of major platforms, particularly in the area of ballistic missile defense and counter-insurgency.

“We would like to expand our security cooperation with partners in the region by working in a coordinated way with the GCC, including through the sales of U.S. defense articles through the GCC as an organization,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said.

In an address to the Manama Dialogue on Dec. 7, Hagel marked the first senior U.S. official that addressed arms sales to the GCC as a military coalition. Until now, Washington has sold hundreds of billions of dollars to individual GCC states, mostly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

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  Chuck Hagel, Gulf Cooperation Council, Manama Dialogue, Peninsula Shield, U.S. offers to sell major military platforms to Gulf states as a block