As tension mounts between Iran and Israel, both countries are planning to launch new space satellites to peer into each other's military domains as they prepare for possible conflict.
Israel, which has the most advanced defense industry in the region, is technologically years ahead of the Islamic Republic, but the Iranians are racing to narrow the gap.
And putting satellites into space is the best way of developing the rockets that will become intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Israel already has an arsenal of Jericho missiles buried in silos in the Judean Hills. Iran is working on matching that.
It will take a few years, but every step that takes Tehran closer to that objective, such as the satellite launches it plans, increases Israel's alarm.
Meantime, the United Arab Emirates, which lies across the Gulf from Iran, is nearing completion of a strategic space intelligence center that will ensure 24-hour surveillance of Iran and be able to identify missile launches.
The center, being built in Abu Dhabi with the help of France's 4C Controls, had been scheduled to become operational in mid-2009, but is still being fine-tuned.
It will process the imagery provided by Italy's COSMO-SkyMed system and the Ikonos satellite used by the emirate air force. Saudi Arabia is considering a similar system.
The emirates' project is a measure of the concern felt in the Gulf Arab states about Iran... >>>
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