UAE: Gulf Countries Fail to Censure Iran’s Nuclear Plans

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Meena Janardhan

DUBAI, Dec 27 2005 (IPS) - While the build-up to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit, on the weekend, indicated moves to put Iran on notice over its nuclear programme, the final communiqué carried no reference to an issue which dominated the two-day meeting in Abu Dhabi.

What may have caused a change of heart is a controversy stirred up by a letter from Arab League secretary-general Amre Mousa, which played down fears regarding Iran and concentrated only on Israel’s nuclear programme.

As a consequence, the final communiqué of the oil-rich bloc focused on Israel’s nuclear arsenal and its refusal to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) but left Iran to decide for itself what the real message is.

The Supreme Council of the GCC, which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, called upon Israel to join the NPT and subject its nuclear facilities to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency . It also urged the international community to pressure Israel on this issue.

After the summit, GCC secretary-general Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah said the Council was no longer worried about Tehran’s nuclear programme. However, he set a condition. ‘‘It’s not worrisome as long as it is restricted to peaceful use,” he said, warning that if it is proved otherwise, the issue wouldn’t be ignored.

UAE foreign minister Rashid Abdullah was more blunt. ‘‘We have our concerns. We have our worries and we have mentioned them (to Arab officials). We are in a region so close to Iran’s Bushehr facility, and we have no guarantees on our safety. There is no protection against any leakage from this reactor,” he said.

Speaking openly about the ‘fears and worries’ of the GCC countries, perhaps for the first time, Abdullah said, ‘‘Iran is not a member of the early warning agreement, so if any error happens there at the reactor, we have no way to get informed in time. We need guarantees that if and when something wrong happens, we would be informed.”

Reacting to the controversy regarding Mousa’s letter, Abdullah said, ‘‘If he does not agree with us on the Iranian nuclear issue, he is free to think the way he wants. Mousa spoke as an Egyptian, about fears regarding Israeli nuclear facilities. But he should also speak in his capacity as secretary-general of the Arab League, about our concerns regarding the nuclear threats from Iran. But let me emphasise that Israeli nuclear programmes are also a source of worry.”

Commenting on UAE’s displeasure, Mousa said, ‘‘The League’s position on this threat is clear with regard to the need to dismantle such weapons from the entire area irrespective of whether a country has nuclear weapons or is accused of having them. We are indeed concerned about the Iranian nuclear threat and have expressed this concern on a number of occasions.”

The statement reflected a divide in the security perceptions of the Arab League and the GCC on this issue and on others as well.

For instance, the Sultanate of Oman did acknowledge the dispute between the UAE and Iran over the three UAE islands of Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunbs occupied by Iran in 1971 but did not see Iran as an imminent threat.

But UAE foreign minister Abdullah reiterated his country’s stance. “The UAE’s three islands are occupied territories in reality. The UAE is a peaceful country that believes in right, justice and law and also expects others to believe in these principles, Islamic values and good neighbourliness and that there is always a solution through peaceful means either through direct negotiations, international community or arbitration.”

Despite such differences, GCC countries were unanimous in the belief that the region should be free of the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Answering questions on why no reference was made in the summit’s final communiqué to Iran’s nuclear programme, Al Attiyah said the leaders did discuss the issue. “The GCC summits and ministerial councils always stress the need to maintain the region free from weapons of mass destruction. WMD is an international issue and it is everyone’s demand to rid the region of its evils.”

Apart from the issue of a nuclear-free zone that seemed to permeate every discussion, the 26th summit, which was attended by the leaders of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, focused on trade and economic activities, which has been a subject of unanimity for many summits now.

In an article in Lebanon’s Dar Al-Hayat Arabic daily, Daoud Al-Shirian said the ‘‘Abu Dhabi summit confirmed to all of us once again that the summit that was held 25 years after founding the Council did not add anything new. The GCC panics over trivial matters and over a letter either unread or read by an angry mind.”

The GCC does maintain a joint security force, created in 1986 at the height of the Iran-Iraq war but it proved ineffective during Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.