14 December 2009: Gulf News
By Habib Toumi
Manama The US administration should consider the Arab countries in the Gulf as essential partners on sensitive issues related to the region and should ensure that their interests are represented, Bahrain's Crown Prince Shaikh Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa has said.
The Bahraini request was conveyed by Shaikh Salman as he received Jeffrey Feltman, the US assistant secretary for Near-Eastern affairs, the most senior US figure taking part in the Manama Dialogue, Bahrain News Agency reported.
Wary of "ugly surprises", Gulf states have been concerned that Iran-US negotiations could result in unacceptable concessions to the Iranians that would undermine their security and stability.
Gulf officials say that they do encourage a dialogue between Iran and the US that will help avoid taking the region into military action, but are worried that the US would strike a deal that would give concessions on the Iranian nuclear programme and on its perceived role in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.
The GCC insists that it should be involved in the ongoing talks between Iran and the world's major powers, stressing that keeping them out of matters that would affect them was "the wrong system of talks".
Flawed process
On Saturday, Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa, Bahrain's Foreign Minister, said that negotiations or talks on Iran's nuclear programme that did not include the Arab countries of the Gulf were doomed "because the process was flawed".
"Somebody's trying to do business while we're not there, while we're not present in that room. This is a fundamental mistake of how these talks were conducted. I think that is the main reason why the talks failed," Shaikh Khalid told the Manama Dialogue, a security conference that brings together political and security leaders from 25 countries, including Iran and the US.
Shaikh Khalid said the GCC countries were the most directly concerned with the talks between Iran and the major powers, but were not involved or consulted. According to the minister, another mistake would be to impose sanctions on the people of Iran.
