Stick together for security, Saudi Arabia warns GCC

The Saudi assistant foreign minister, Nizar Madani, told the Manama Dialogue security forum in Bahrain: “Gulf countries should no longer depend on others to ensure their safety.” Mohammed Al Shaikh / Show more

MANAMA // With its decades-old US alliance strained over the Syria war and a nuclear deal with Iran, Saudi Arabia is calling on the Gulf countries to unite for their own self-defence.

The US pentagon chief Chuck Hagel, who was in Saudi Arabia on Monday, has assured Gulf states that the agreement struck between major powers and Iran on November 24 will not affect the presence of some 35,000 US troops in the region.

Security in the region will be on the agenda as GCC countries meet on Tuesday for a two-day summit in Kuwait.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, will leave for Kuwait today along with the UAE’s delegation to attend the GCC meeting.

In a speech at the Manama Dialogue security forum in Bahrain over the weekend, the Saudi assistant foreign minister Nizar Madani said: “Gulf countries should no longer depend on others to ensure their safety.”

The countries “must unite under one political entity to face internal and external challenges”, said Mr Madani.

Riyadh has called for an enhanced union with fellow Gulf Cooperation Council states the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar.

“All countries have realised that blind dependence on a foreign power is no longer acceptable. GCC countries must decide their own futures,” said Mr Madani.

Saudi Arabia, long wary of Tehran’s regional ambitions, has reacted cautiously to the nuclear deal reached in Geneva, saying it could mark the first step towards a comprehensive solution for Iran’s nuclear programme “if there are good intentions”.

The interim deal would curb Iran’s uranium enrichment programme in exchange for some sanctions relief, and is aimed at buying time for negotiating a comprehensive accord.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief Prince Turki Al Faisal suggested that the GCC states join the negotiations between Iran and six world powers, the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.

Western nations have long suspected Iran of covertly pursuing nuclear weapons alongside its uranium enrichment programme, charges denied by Tehran, and the US has not ruled out military action to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Mr Al Faisal stressed that the Sunni-dominated monarchies would immediately be affected by any regional military conflict or radiation leak, while accusing Iran of duplicity in its relations with its Arab neighbours.

“Iran addresses us with broad smiles, while at the same time their man in Lebanon accuses Saudi Arabia,” Mr Al Faisal said in reference to the Hizbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, who blamed the kingdom for a twin suicide attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut last month, which killed 25 people.

Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s regime, and Hizbollah and Iraqi Shiite militias are battling alongside his forces against the Sunni-led rebels, who are supported by Riyadh.

* Agence France-Presse