IRAN: Narrowing the Gulf?
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahamadinejad arrived in Doha, Qatar, today as the first Iranian to attend a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, or the GCC.
Across the Red Sea in Egypt come more signs of Arab-Iranian rapprochement. Iran Khodro, a major car manufacturer, announced plans this weekend to start making about 5,000 cars a year in Egypt for the local market there. (Iran is already in the process of building a car plant for its buddy Syria). Cairo is also talking to Tehran about the possibility of inking a deal to import Iranian wheat.
Egypt and Iran haven’t had full diplomatic relations since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. The GCC was formed by Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar to counter Tehran’s regional ambitions and back Baghdad during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.
Coming after last week’s Annapolis conference (meant in part to build a coalition to confront Iran) such developments will no doubt baffle and anger neoconservatives in Washington. They hope to isolate Iran because of its nuclear program.
So what’s going on?
The Middle East countries may just be trying to play Iran and the U.S. against each other to see what they can get out of them both. Indeed, Ahmadinejad struck a conciliatory tone at the summit, despite the Arab states' decision to buck Iranian demands that they boycott Annapolis. He offered an olive branch, a proposal for a security pact between Iran and the Gulf states.
"Through assistance and coordination, we can turn the Persian Gulf into a gulf of peace, friendship and brotherhood for good," he told assembled regional leaders, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.
A commentator on state-controlled radio in Tehran described Ahmadinjead's visit as "unprecedented," heaping praise on a president who has been criticized for isolating Iran diplomatically.
But other dynamics might be at work. The Arab states are terrified about the possibility of another war in the region, this time between Iran and America. “I solemnly invite all parties, including Iran, to use the language of reason and dialogue, away from confrontation and escalation,” GCC secretary general Abdulrahman Al Attiyah said ahead of this week's summit, according to news agencies and Arab papers.
The GCC has also grown over the years into a strategic partnership that allows the oil-rich, pro-U.S. Persian Gulf monarchies to exercise their growing diplomatic and economic heft. The Daily Star of Lebanon notes that the Gulf states worries might be best resolved through such dialogues.
The summit constitutes a useful forum in which such concerns might be allayed. On the nuclear front, there is reason to believe that progress is possible at a level that would improve stability, build trust, and prevent another round of US-led military action of the sort that has made a shambles of Iraq.
The editorial praises the Iranians' of putting its controversial nuclear enrichment program under some kind of regional umbrella.
This would help the countries concerned to meet their own electricity needs and reduce their domestic use of the oil and gas that are such lucrative export products. It would also help Iran and the GCC to imagine a time in the not-so-distant future when their relations might be driven by shared goals rather than countervailing fears and suspicions.
But many issues continue to divide Iran and the Gulf, and not just the gaping sectarian divide that has alienated Shiite Iran from the Sunni-dominated Arab world, especially in Iraq. Iran and the United Arab Emirates still have not resolved their differences over the disputed island of Abu Musa in the Gulf.
— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut and Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran
Photo: Ruler of Oman Sultan Qaboos, left, walks with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, centre, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Gulf Cooperation Council opening session in Doha on Monday Dec. 3, 2007. Credit: Abdul Basit/Associated Press
