This refers to the report, “GCC: ‘We want Tehran’s cooperation, not meddling’.” (Aug. 4)
The member-states of the GCC have always been there for cooperation not just with Iran but every nation on earth, but what if the overture for peace is taken for one’s weakness.
Old habits, they say, die hard, but if the habits are Iranian — or for that matter Israeli — then it perhaps never dies.
The matter is not just about a mere handshake between two friends. It’s about a country’s larger designs to expand, to lead a sectarian constituency, to hegemonize a region and to declare supremacy over others.
Will all these go overnight? Will a handshake or grinning photo-ops change ages-old agendas of Iran? I seriously doubt.
But then we have to move on. The solution is surely not in confrontation, but in understanding each other better to calm down a situation which is volatile and which needs a better handling.
I appreciate the US efforts to allay the apprehension in the region about any possible flares up in the event of lifting of sanctions on Iran. Yet, such apprehension is not without foundation.
The Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid Al-Attiyah is right when he says the GCC wanted to spare the region from any dangers and threats from nuclear weapons.
I pray that good sense prevails and the leaders join hands to make the Middle East one of the most developed regions of the world! — Zakir Hussain, Makkah
Let’s move on
