An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hassan Qashqavi, confirmed that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was likely to attend the upcoming Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit in Muscat, even if the host country insisted that participation was limited to leaders from the six member-states.
The overconfident Qashqavi clarified that Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifah Al Thani, the ruler of Qatar who visited Tehran last week, hoped "to convey the Arabian Gulf countries' request to expand cooperation with the Islamic Republic and holding further negotiations with Iran on ways to establish peace and security in the region."
What kind of a guest would Ahmadinejad make if an invitation brought him to Oman after all?
Because Ahmadinejad attended the 28th Doha Summit in December 2007, where the closed session meeting with senior GCC leaders was anything but brotherly, many were wary of the precedent setting arrangement. According to the London-based daily Asharq Al Awsat, Muscat did not intend to invite Ahmadinejad, with an Omani official declaring: "We have no decision to invite the leaders of non-GCC countries for participation of this council's session."
It may be argued that the GCC States and Iran would benefit from additional dialogue to reinforce existing ties as well as promote cooperation on both sides of the Gulf. Yet, in exchange for sorely needed additional collaboration, one would expect that Tehran would bend backwards to settle serious but manageable contentions.
Given its egregious record of occupation - Abu Mousa and the Lesser and Greater Tunb Islands in the UAE - or its periodic threats to close the strategic Straits of Hormuz, has it dawned on Iran to come to terms with these concerns for the sake of long-term stability?
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was startled last week after GCC Secretary-General Abdul-Rahman Al Atiyyah compared the Iranian occupation of the islands - and there are no other words to describe this fact - to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Mottaki described the affable Secretary-General's evaluation as being "inappropriate", even if the shrewd foreign minister quickly added that his government was studying the invitation to its president. In fact, reliable Qatari sources confirmed that Shaikh Hamad's latest meetings with his Iranian counterpart were as difficult as previous ones, although customary public assertions of "partnership" and "consultations" abounded.
Impossible
Whether Shaikh Hamad extended his latest invitation out of frustration was impossible to know, even if a high-ranking Omani official validated the notion that most Gulf leaders did not know anything about inviting the Iranian. Indeed, Kuwaiti officials authenticated this contention by declaring: "Kuwait was not consulted or expressed an opinion on this question.
It did not receive any request or desire to possibly invite the Iranian president to the upcoming GCC summit." Abu Dhabi, Manama and Riyadh were equally in the dark and did not wish to repeat the 2007 embarrassment, when strong words were exchanged among participants.
Still, a genuine invitation to the Iranian president should be considered by Oman on behalf of GCC leaders, if and only if pre-summit negotiations can secure a felicitous outcome on at least one existing contention. In other words, and given that senior GCC officials iron out most of their agenda before an actual summit, Muscat may well wish to tie an Ahmadinejad participation with a withdrawal agreement from Abu Mousa and the Tunbs. This is the stuff of international relations and a serious quid pro quo must be established to advance Iranian-GCC ties beyond the proverbial but shallow "brotherly" support.
An Ahmadinejad presence at a summit that is well prepared will benefit Iran just as much as GCC countries. Since the day will surely come when this occupation will end, why not anticipate its end, and negotiate a specific accord now? Why not entice Tehran to deliver on its lofty prose? Why not invite Mottaki to distinguish Iran from Israel by actually behaving differently from the Jewish state?
Short of such a commitment, GCC countries will not accept a second Iranian intrusion within their ranks. Indeed, the time has come for Ahmadinejad to put his policies where his mouth is, and belie those who dismiss him as a second-rate charlatan. Clearly, the Iranian is a man of action and can quickly reach a decision, even if technicalities might take a little longer to sort out. No one should be pre-occupied that there is no time to iron out a deal because the summit is imminent.
One can make the argument that while occupation is a complicated matter, which will require a lot of negotiations, enough time has elapsed that no longer require further discussions. The uncertainty or perhaps the hesitancy hovers around a mere choice.
Either Iran acknowledges that it is an occupying power, and that it wishes to cleanse itself of this heavy burden, or it believes that the occupied Islands are Iranian property. In the latter case, no brotherly invitations would make an iota of difference, and Mottaki would no longer be justified to voice his consternation at an official GCC condemnation.
Ahmadinejad must distance himself from the likes of Kazem Jalali, the rapporteur of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, who criticised Atiyyah and labelled the Secretary-General's declaration as being "inflammatory discourse" and "influenced by the great powers and their satanic policies". Ahmadinejad will need to chastise such underlings and mean what he says about the Arab Gulf States, lest he be accused of hypocrisy, which is clearly not his mantle.
When one is invited to someone else's home, etiquette requires that you carry appropriate gifts for the occasion. Iran needs to rise to the occasion of the upcoming GCC summit by finally accepting that its occupation of the UAE islands will end. Without any denials or preconditions for endless negotiations that are unbecoming of great leaders. That's the stuff of statesmen who have a vision and guests who wish to walk on a red carpet.
Dr Joseph A. Kechichian is a commentator and author of several books on Gulf affairs.
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