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| Prince Turki al-Faisal addressing the Manama Dialogue |
Oman is emerging as Iran’s Trojan Horse trying to
destroy the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) from within.
Sultan Qaboos bin Said,
the monarch of Oman since 1970, reportedly played a key role in facilitating
the secret U.S.-Iran talks leading up to the November 24 “historic” nuclear
deal, according to The Associated Press.
Oman is isolated from
much of the rest of the Arabian Peninsula by a formidable mountain range,
while Iran is just across the narrow Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway
for global oil shipments that has at times raised tensions between the U.S. and
Iran.
As early as 2009,
according to Wikileaks, the sultanate offered to arrange talks between the U.S.
and Iran – which hadn’t had diplomatic relations for 30 years – on condition
that they were kept quiet. But it was reportedly the hostage crisis of three
American “hikers” that brought him into a mediating role between the two sides
and helped win the release of the three Americans, who were arrested and
accused of spying while hiking along the Iran-Iraq border.
With that success in
his pocket, Sultan Qaboos offered to facilitate a U.S.-Iran rapprochement, the
AP reports. In March, U.S. and Iranian officials met in Oman, Secretary of
State John Kerry followed up in May, and the talks took on a momentum of their
own after Hassan Rouhani replaced Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran’s June elections.
Sultan
Qaboos wasn’t in front of the cameras in Geneva, but a news report in the Saudi daily al-Hayat this morning speaks of
“fears within the GCC of Iranian-Omani efforts to break up” the six-member club
grouping Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and
Oman.
Oman
and Saudi Arabia bickered publicly over the GCC’s future last week at the three-day
Manama
Dialogue in Bahrain, a forum on Middle East security.
A much-anticipated Gulf
union is inevitable and will happen because people in the region are keen on
it, Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former Intelligence Chief who also
served as ambassador in both the United States and United Kingdom, told the
conference.
He was commenting on
remarks made Saturday by Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, the Omani foreign
minister, who said his country rejected the Gulf union and would pull out of
the club if the union were approved.
“Everyone has the right
to express their opinions,” Prince Turki retorted. “However, this will not
prevent the union from happening. Oman can join it then or later, or not at all,”
he said.
On the nuclear talks in
Geneva last month between the 5+1 world powers and Iran, Prince Turki said they
lacked a “very important factor” – namely, the participation of Iran’s Gulf
neighbors.
“I don’t know the
reasons for that… because eventually we are the ones that will be affected by
anything -- a military event or a nuclear leak or any earthquake that may hit
the [nuclear] sites in Iran,” he remarked.
“No doubt we are now
facing a big smile from the Iranian leadership in the way they are dealing with
the Gulf.”
Prince Turki added:
“Iran must take concrete measures before we can judge whether it is going
forward with a smile, or simply showing its teeth.”
Prince Turki said
television and radio stations in Iran are targeting the Gulf Arabs with
inflammatory broadcasts tackling “sensitive issues in our Arab world.”
Addressing Iran, he
said: “Why don’t you close them down and show us your good intentions? Show us
you are serious about this real, wide smile you are showing us.”
The
six GCC partners hold their annual year-end summit in Kuwait, tomorrow, Tuesday.
Ghassan
Charbel, editor-in-chief of al-Hayat, has this word today to tell tomorrow’s
summiteers:
The
region is unlike the one that existed three years ago.
Governments
are confused. Armies are anxious. Borders are violated or about to be…
Iraq’s
disintegration is an undeniable fact. The dismemberment of Yemen is flagrant.
What looked like a Syrian intifada turned out to be a sectarian war feeding tension
into the neighbors’ arteries.
Lebanon’s
institutions are in a coma and its doors are open to refugees and fire. Libya,
which spent four decades under one leader, today terrorizes its people,
neighbors and the world. From Yemen to Tunisia, al-Qaeda and its ilk are omnipresent…
Today’s
world is much more dangerous than the world that witnessed the birth of the GCC
in 1981.
Bar
Israel, four key regional states will play a dominant role in this difficult
phase depending on their respective internal stability, resources and
alliances.
They
are Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and Turkey.
GCC
leaders who meet in Kuwait tomorrow are aware of the magnitude of the threats
to stability and roles. They know the importance of adapting to change.
Oman’s
attitude clearly unveiled that the Gulf union’s journey won’t be trouble-free.
But
sensitivities should not forestall attempts to reconcile views of the various
GCC member states on how to handle this phase of containing risks and assigning
roles.
