Iran will take part in the Gulf Dialogue which tomorrow brings together in Manama security officials from GCC countries, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, United States, France, Russia, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Singapore, India, China and Germany.
"Iran will definitely send a delegation to the meeting, but the name of its leader has not been released yet," Iran's Ambassador to Bahrain, Mohammad Farazmand, yesterday told Gulf News.
By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
Manama: Iran will take part in the Gulf Dialogue which tomorrow brings together in Manama security officials from GCC countries, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, United States, France, Russia, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Singapore, India, China and Germany.
"Iran will definitely send a delegation to the meeting, but the name of its leader has not been released yet," Iran's Ambassador to Bahrain, Mohammad Farazmand, yesterday told Gulf News.
There was speculation about Iran's attendance after the country earlier this month boycotted the Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) and G8 Forum for the Future in Manama saying that it did not wish "to be associated with anything related to the BMENA project". Tehran last year took part in the first Gulf Dialogue in Manama.
GCC relations with Iran with a focus on energy security and defence implications will be one of the themes to be discussed at the three-day gathering.
Iran will also figure high on the fifth plenary session when participants discuss regional relations between Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq.
The United States will be represented by Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Frances Townsend, while Defence Secretary John Reid will lead the UK delegation and Defence Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie will head the French team.
Regional cooperation
Last week, House of Lords Government Whip Baroness Royal of Blaisdon said that the British Government believed that it was important to support the region as a whole and countries working together in the area.
She was responding to Lord Wallace of Saltaire who said that "what has been wrong with Western policy towards the Gulf region for the past 30 or 40 years has been the tendency to support one Gulf state against the rest first to rely on Iran until the revolution, as the West's bastion, then supporting Iraq against Iran during the war, and then trying to build up Saudi Arabia against both".
The Baroness said that there was "nothing to stop the states of the region getting together as a regional security force", stressing that "the dialogue that they have established may sow the seeds of such regional cooperation".
Plenary sessions will discuss US and regional security, perspectives on GCC international security relationships, the nature of the regional terrorism challenges, perspectives on the situation in Iraq, and regional security and international cooperation.
Break-out sessions will address maritime security in the region, and regional military strategies and challenges.
"The plenary sessions offer a platform for ministers and national security advisors to clarify and expand on government policy, and to be challenged by an expert group on policies and assumptions," the UK-based IISS (International Institute for Strategic Studies) said in a statement.
"Sessions offer a platform for ministers and national security advisors to clarify government policies."
