The Arab Gulf countries have at last decided to get tough on the neighbouring Shi'ite country of Iran, said to be mainly to blame for the political and sectarian turmoil in the Gulf region and the Arab country of Syria. In their two-day summit in the capital of the Kingdom of Bahrain on Monday, kings and emirs of the Gulf Co-operation Council member states firmly demanded Iran to stop ‘immediately and forever' meddling in their (Arab) internal affairs. The sharply worded warning is widely regarded as spelling undivided support for the host, the United Arab Emirates and Syria. The Kingdom of Bahrain has been witnessing months-long political turmoil instigated by the Shi'ite community; Tehran is suspected of fomenting Bahrain's sectarian sedition, which has sporadically extended to eastern Saudi Arabia. The GCC and Iran have also got dragged into an undeclared confrontation in an alien battleground, with Tehran throwing its full weight behind the crumbling regime of President Bashar Assad in Damascus. Last month, GCC recognised the Syrian National Coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people. Backed by Tehran and Moscow, Bashar stubbornly refuses to step down and has resumed the mass killing of his Syrian people. The Assad Dynasty in Syria belongs to the Shi'ite sect of Alawyy (named after the Prophet Mohamed's cousin, Ali ibn Abu Taleb). In their meeting in Manama, GCC kings and emirs demanded that Iran should abruptly end its occupation of the UAE's three islands. Tehran was asked to take part in direct negotiations or accept international arbitration to settle its dispute with the UAE. In the meantime, GCC member states are shifting restlessly in their seats as Iran adamantly refuses to defuse its nightmarish nuclear threat. Since the 1973 October War against the Israelis, the GCC has established itself as an influential political and economic bloc, regionally and globally. The Arab Gulf countries' influence has increased in the wake of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Taking into account the fact that the GCC is facing shared threats and embraces common goals, Manama's meeting could pave the way for helping to upgrade GCC economic co-operation, leading to a geo-political union. “[The GCC] are at a stage when the Arab Gulf states must be united rather than separate, as we have similar political systems and the same threats endanger our nations. “What we want at this stage is a Gulf union to further our co-operation and interdependence, while also providing us with a collective security umbrella as a strategic option for achieving self-security," the Prime Minister of the host country, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa, told the Bahrain News Agency a day before Monday's meeting.
