Ahmadinejad stole the GCC show in Doha this week, Sherine Bahaa reports Though much was said in the corridors of Sheraton Doha about the significance of the 28th regular meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) this week, the final communiqué reflected nothing of the sort. Except for the launch of a pan-Gulf common market by January 2008 not much has changed in the usual communiqué that comes out each and every summit. It sounded like the routine annual summit of the Sunni Arab bloc, though its timing as well as geo-political and economic complications in the region should have pushed the leaders to adopt a more positive approach. But what really caught the eye this time was the actual presence of leaders of the six GCC countries namely; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, all important US allies. Meanwhile, it was one of those rare summits when the six heads of state themselves took the time to attend the meeting to address the challenges facing their sheikhdoms. For Saudi Arabia, it was the first time in 17 years that the head of state visited Qatar. Unprecedented as well was the invitation to the Iranian president to take part in their summit, and walk down the red carpet along with Saudi King Abdullah. It took place less than a week after the Arab nations attended a US-sponsored Middle East peace summit in Annapolis, Maryland. Despite all the claims that the international conference was meant to give a push to the stalemated peace process in the Middle East, the Annapolis gathering was widely seen as an American attempt to unite countries in the region against Iran. Iran has been greatly strengthened by the US removal of two bitter enemies on its borders -- Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. According to Saudi columnist Khaled Al-Dakhil, there are a number of factors which helped Iran become a regional superpower, mainly the defeat of Iraq and its occupation by US forces with Iran having the upper hand there. Moreover, the build-up of its nuclear capacity has granted the Persian country more leverage over its Arab neighbours. The Gulf region is facing "serious threats" to its security and prosperity, the emir of Qatar warned in his opening speech to the summit. The emir listed a series of crises that he said are increasing pressure on the region, and putting the quest for regional stability at stake. The standoff over the Iranian nuclear programme was first on his list, followed by the build-up of military forces in the Gulf. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presence was the highlight of the GCC summit. However, nothing related to the Iranian participation in the summit or proposals made by President Ahmadinejad was mentioned in the final communiqué. A brief statement by the Qatari presidency to welcome their guest and a couple of words promising a later examination of his proposals was the only answer the Iranians got. What Iran really brought to the conference was an open question. Did Iran participate in this summit to appease its neighbouring Gulf countries on the opposite side of the Gulf regarding its nuclear project, or is it another manoeuvre by the Persian republic to drag them into this confrontation with the West? Well informed sources said that faced with stepped- up international pressure over its controversial uranium enrichment programme and Ahmadinejad's supposedly declining popularity, Iran is eager to improve ties with its Gulf Arab neighbours. According to Saudi analyst Majid Anwar Eshki, the invitation to the Iranian president was a response to a request presented to the GCC by the Iranian regime. GCC countries are very concerned about Iran's nuclear plans, fearing that rising tensions between the Shia Islamic Republic and Western countries over the issue might lead to regional instability. The irony was obvious to many following this year's summit. The organisation was founded 26 years ago to counter the spread of the Islamic revolution in neighbouring Iran after the expulsion of the shah with his Persian expansionist dreams. These dreams still linger in the minds of Iran's Arab Gulf neighbours. Today and after almost a quarter of a century, these same countries are sitting side by side with the fiery Iranian president ,exploring together how to protect their region. But why is that? Is it an Arab acknowledgement of Tehran's rising power? The Iranian president's attendance at the GCC was a "significant development", said Mehran Kamrava, head of the Centre for International and Regional Studies at the Doha campus of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. It keeps the "channels with Iran open", he said. In a show of courtesy to their guest, Ahmadinejad was given the right to speak immediately after the opening speech of the Qatari emir. Speaking in Persian through an Arabic translator, Ahmadinejad talked of plans to boost cooperation both in terms of security and economically. The message was clear in his words -- any security problem in one country would spill over into neighbouring states. Though what he said was not new to his Arab Gulf counterparts, Ahmadinejad was optimistic, "it seems a new chapter has been opened in the relations between the Persian and Gulf states," he said. It was clear that Iran seeks a meaningful role in the GCC's architecture of regional security, by championing the idea of collective security, following the principle of regional self-sufficiency. Iran supports the notion that the regional states should shoulder their own security responsibility instead of "farming out" security matters to external powers such as the US, which is viewed by Iran as a source of instability. However, many argue that the Iranian president did not exert any effort to address the worries of Gulf leaders. The dispute with the United Arab Emirates over three strategic islands remains a stumbling block in any rapprochement between the two parties. The deterioration of the situation in US-occupied Iraq and the increasing role played by Iran especially after the appointing of its Shia government, in addition to the nuclear question are all unsettled issues. But Ahmadinejad refrained from mentioning any of these issues in his speech. This was not the first encounter between Iranian officials and their Gulf counterparts. Previously Iranian officials including Hashemi Rafsanjani visited a number of Arab Gulf countries to assure them that Iran's nuclear agenda is totally peaceful and expressed their keenness to establish official channels for cooperation in different fields. During the press conference this year, Ahmadinejad tried to soothe the tension when asked about his country's nuclear agenda. He invited Gulf leaders to Tehran to see for themselves what has been achieved so far, and also called for cooperation in that field, including the training of Gulf scientists in Iran. "This will be a huge step towards reinforcing friendly relationship between our states," Ahmadinejad said. "Our cooperation will unite us against any foreign influence or injustice. We should make every effort to keep the region devoid of any tension or crisis." Iran has been regularly calling for a security cooperation pact with Gulf Arab states as the best way of securing the region and ridding it of US forces, a plan Gulf Arabs have been ignoring until now.
