MANAMA, 1 November 2006 — The top US diplomat in Bahrain warned weapons proliferators on Monday that his country and the world community would not allow them to endanger global peace and stability.
The comments of the US State Department representative and US Ambassador to Bahrain, William T. Monroe, came hours after the first round of a two-day Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) exercise known as Leading Edge began in the waters of the Gulf for the first time with the participation of three regional countries — Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
Bahrain was the only country to participate actively in the exercise with the island nation putting up three battle ships and a vessel boarding team.
Nineteen other countries including Qatar, UAE, South Korea and Japan who are fearful of their neighbors nuclear programs took part in the exercise as observers.
Iran, which like Northern Korea faces the threat of UN sanctions because of its nuclear program, ahead of the exercise criticized the US military presence in the region, urging nations in the area to set up their own regional security arrangement.
Monroe described the exercise as a political message to countries — whom he did not name — which are trying to circumvent their international obligation.
“The PSI exercise is a strong message that responsible countries will not hesitate to use their national and international legal authorities to deny proliferators safe haven for their dangerous and illicit trade,” Monroe told reports following the first day of the exercise. “Responsible countries would not stand aside as proliferators circumvent their international obligation.”
Monroe pointed out that the exercise had been planned more than nine months earlier and denied that the aim was to single out Iran and North Korea who are both developing controversial nuclear programs.
“Leading Edge was planned for some time. We have had exercises all around the world and there was no reason why the Gulf would not be a place where we might do an exercise,” he said.
He added that they were deeply appreciative that so many of their partners took part in this exercise as co-participants or as observers, singling out Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE for praise.
“Their attendance underscores an important point that the PSI training exercise program is a truly global effort, involving countries all over the world,” he said.
Monroe also said that the PSI was not just an exercise. He pointed out that the US had worked successfully with multiple partners in Asia, Europe and the Middle East to prevent transfers of equipment and material of WMD and missile proliferation program in countries of concern in roughly two dozen separate occasions between April 2005 and April 2006.
“Successful interdiction is made possible through the cooperation by PSI partners, which is the basis of the success of the exercise today. PSI cooperation relies on one simple idea that states acting together can accomplish more to stop WMD trafficking than any state acting alone,” he said, adding that “these exercises send a strong signal to proliferators that PSI partners are prepared to take effective action against them.”
The exercise, which is taking place in international waters more than 20 miles off the northeastern coast of Bahrain, mock the interception of a vessel suspected of hauling weapons of mass destruction and boarding it for inspection.
Battleships from five coalition countries — the US, Australia, France, Italy, the UK and Bahrain — simulate tracking the British ship RFA Brambleaf, which is a British Royal Navy supply ship, and making it comply to orders of boarding for inspection.
Lt. Gennaro Vitagliano from the Italian Navy said that the exercise aims to raise the level of preparedness of coalition and regional countries to halt movement of such material.
He said, “What we’re doing today is no different than what we do every day. We’ll follow the same procedures we normally do when conducting boarding operations at sea.”
“The exercise helps regional countries in the short run to quickly move within the coalition to face the threat and in the long run it gives them the capabilities to address the issue on their own more effectively,” he added.
“The skills learned in such exercises are not only applicable to proliferation, but they can be used in combating terrorism, smuggling and other illegal maritime activity, which is a threat to them.”
Vitagliano added the threat of terrorism remains to be a global one as it was the case with the recent threat to oil fields in Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia, and that no one nation can address that threat on it its own. The exercise, which ended yesterday, is the third in the Fifth Fleet area.
The first two exercises in the Fifth Fleet were held in January 2004 in the Arabian Sea and in November 2005 in the Indian Ocean.
The PSI, according to US officials, is a response to the growing challenge posed by the proliferation of WMD, their delivery systems and related materials worldwide.
