U.S. plans arms sale to UAE to counter Iran

The Obama administration plans to sell thousands of advanced "bunker-buster" bombs and other munitions to the United Arab Emirates as a way to keep Iran in check, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The arms proposal, expected to soon be formally presented to Congress, includes the sale of up to 4,900 joint direct attack munitions, or JDAMs, along with other weapons systems, the report said. The report came just days after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said "credible" evidence showed that Iran has engaged in projects and experiments relevant to the development of nuclear weapons. Teheran completely rejected the IAEA report and insisted that Iran had no nuclear weapon programs. It criticized the IAEA report as being "imbalanced, unprofessional and politically motivated." The proposed arms sale is the Obama administration's latest effort to build a regional coalition to counter Iran. With the new munitions, the UAE, a key U.S. Persian Gulf ally, would be able to "expand the existing capabilities of the country's air force to target fixed structures, which could include bunkers and tunnels -- the kind of installations where Iran is believed to be developing weapons," the Wall Street Journal said. The plan is part of a broader effort by the U.S. to build up the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which comprises Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, U.A.E. and Kuwait, as a unified counterweight to Iran, the Journal added. The recent IAEA report put the Obama administration under pressure to come up with new measure against Iran. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday called for tougher economic and diplomatic pressures on Teheran, but warned of "unintended consequences" that could result from military action against Iran.