* Gulf Arabs to weigh union idea at summit in mid-May
* Seek to counter regional protest movements, Iran’s clout
* Bahrain’s resurgent unrest is most immediate concern
By Andrew Hammond
DUBAI, April 29 (Reuters) – Wary of Iran and regional
protest movements, Gulf Arab states are pushing ahead with plans
for a political union that would involve joint foreign and
defence policies, the Saudi foreign minister said in a speech at
the weekend.
The comments by Prince Saud al-Faisal come two weeks ahead
of a summit of U.S.-aligned Gulf leaders in Riyadh that will
review an outline for such a union after Saudi King Abdullah
first floated the idea last December.
A Gulf-based Western diplomat said the proposal was driven
mainly by Saudi fears that the restive Shi’ite Muslim majority
in Bahrain could topple the island kingdom’s Sunni Muslim
rulers. He said an announcement of progress on a federation
between the two to launch the union could be made at the summit.
Shi’ite-led unrest is resurging in Bahrain a year after the
ruling Al Khalifa family brought in Saudi and United Arab
Emirates troops to help suppress an uprising seen by Gulf rulers
as sectarian in nature and driven by Shi’ite giant Iran.
A visit this month by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
to the island of Abu Musa, also claimed by the United Arab
Emirates as its own, has stoked the concern of conservative Gulf
Arabs about Iranian influence in the oil-exporting region.
“Cooperation and coordination between the countries of the
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in its current format may not be
enough to confront the existing and coming challenges, which
require developing Gulf action into an acceptable federal
format,” Prince Saud said in a speech delivered on his behalf by
his deputy to a GCC youth conference in Riyadh on Saturday.
“The Gulf union, when it is realised, God willing, will
yield great benefits for its peoples, such as in foreign policy
with the presence of a supreme Gulf committee coordinating
foreign policy decisions that reorders group priorities and
realises group interests,” he said.
Gulf leaders fear Bahrain will fall into the orbit of
anti-Western, clergy-ruled Iran if the Shi’ite opposition wins a
stake in government and the Al Khalifa family, distant relatives
of Saudi Arabia’s Al Saud, loses some of its extensive powers.
Bahraini security forces clash with Shi’ite protesters on
most days in various areas of the country while opposition
parties stage mass protests every week.
The opposition, led by the Shi’ite Islamist Wefaq party,
denies Iran links, points to Sunnis and secularists in its ranks
and says it only wants a say in how Bahrain is run.
GCC A RESPONSE TO REVOLUTIONARY IRAN
The GCC was formed in 1980 in the wake of the Islamic
Revolution in Iran, and the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war, by
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain, a
grouping including major world oil and gas producers.
But the Gulf elite – a club of Sunni autocrats providing
military facilities to the United States – have watched with
alarm as Iranian-allied Shi’ites rose to power in Iraq after a
U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and Iran advanced a nuclear energy
programme they fear will give Tehran atomic bomb capability.
The Saudi royal, son of King Faisal who died in 1975, cited
that programme as well as the advent of Arab uprisings last year
as challenges that required the GCC to rethink its relations.
He said that defence integration would be “an alternative to
defence policies based on transitory alliances based on passing
interests, since they are linked to changing interests”.
Riyadh’s faith in Washington took a hit when the United
States exerted pressure to help push Hosni Mubarak from power in
Egypt during an uprising last year. The arrival of Saudi troops
in Bahrain signalled Riyadh’s intention to prevent the
Shi’ite-led protest movement threatening any of the Gulf
monarchies.
The Gulf-based Western diplomat said a federal framework
could allow Riyadh to permanently station troops in Bahrain.
Despite talk of union, however, rivalries among Gulf rulers
run deep. The UAE has refused to join a planned monetary union
and territorial disputes have held up many economic projects.
Saudi objections have delayed plans to build a causeway
between Qatar and Bahrain, while Bahrain has been unable to buy
natural gas from Qatar.
A government-allied parliamentarian in Bahrain told Reuters
last week that he did not expect any such union declaration at
the summit in Riyadh planned for May 14.
Bahraini opposition leaders have warned against any union,
which is likely to provoke protests. Protesters described the
Saudi intervention last year as an occupation.
But while anti-Saudi graffiti lines walls in Shi’ite
districts, pro-government figures look to Saudi Arabia as a
bulwark against Shi’ite empowerment and some have publicly
called for union as salvation from Iran and Shi’ites.
(Editing by Sami Aboudi and Mark Heinrich)
