DOHA, 4 December 2007 — GCC leaders began their annual summit here yesterday to discuss ways of strengthening political, economic, security and defense cooperation and how to ward off mounting challenges facing their countries.
“Although the GCC has made several major achievements it is still below the expectation of people. So we have to double our efforts to satisfy those hopes and aspirations,” said Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifa Al-Thani of Qatar in his opening speech.
The Qatari emir also emphasized the need for the GCC to make greater progress in science and technology in order to achieve sustained growth. “We should become a source for knowledge...and we should be able to develop it instead of just becoming its consumers,” the emir added.
“We are meeting today in an atmosphere of strong dangers that threaten our nations, the region and the world,” the Qatari ruler said in reference to the nuclear standoff between Iran and the West, the mobilization of military forces in the Gulf, the situation in Iraq and Pakistan and terrorism.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah is leading the Saudi delegation to the conference. The delegation includes Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Intelligence Chief Prince Muqrin, Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi, Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf and Culture and Information Minister Iyad Madani.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the first Iranian president to attend a GCC summit, tried to allay fears of his Gulf neighbors and presented a 12-point program to promote relations between Tehran and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council. In his speech at the summit, Ahmadinejad offered to sign a security pact with the GCC (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates).
“We are proposing the conclusion of a security agreement,” the president said, saying that insecurity would affect all countries bordering the Gulf. “We want peace and security... based on justice and without foreign intervention,” he said.
He proposed forming an organization to improve economic cooperation between Iran and the GCC as well as working toward a free trade agreement. He also called for the abolishing of visas to facilitate travel between Iran and the GCC states.
Ahmadinejad said here yesterday that the issue of Tehran’s controversial nuclear program was “closed” and that his country was prepared for any eventuality. “The nuclear issue is now closed. We do not feel threatened at all and we are prepared for any eventuality or conditions,” he told reporters.
His response came after the US intelligence community said yesterday that Iran appears “less determined to develop nuclear weapons” than the US government has been claiming for the past two years.
At the same time, the Islamic republic is thought to be “keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons,” according to declassified key findings of a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), the formal consensus of all 16 US spy agencies.
It cited “high confidence” that Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program in late 2003 and “moderate confidence” that it had not restarted as of mid-2007.
Before leaving Tehran, Ahmadinejad hailed his invitation to Qatar and said he hoped to attend part of the summit itself and to have bilateral meetings.
King Abdullah entered the conference hall flanked by Ahmadinejad and Sultan Qaboos of Oman. Ahmadinejad held a meeting behind closed doors with Sheikh Khalifa ibn Zayed Al-Nahayan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, with which Iran has close trade ties despite a longstanding territorial dispute.
GCC leaders are due to announce the formation of a common market during the summit. They will also have to decide whether to stick to a self-imposed 2010 target to launch a single currency for the region, even as inflation keeps rising.
Among the major regional development projects that would come up for discussions at the summit is the ambitious multibillion dollar GCC railway venture.
A study is being conducted to assess the project’s feasibility under the supervision of the World Bank. The summit will be briefed on the progress made by the study so far. Its findings are, however, to be tabled at the next GCC Summit scheduled to be held in Muscat in 2008.
The Riyadh Summit had issued a resolution for conducting a joint study to assess the feasibility of GCC-member states developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Since the demand for power and desalinated water was increasing at a rapid rate in the region.
“The situation in the region would top issues at the Summit. GCC leaders would also discuss the situation in Iraq, Iran’s nuclear program, the Middle East peace process and the developments in Sudan and Somalia,” GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah told reporters.
“GCC states sometimes do tend to take different stands on issues but this is not something negative. It’s rather healthy and helps member-countries to forge common viewpoints and strategies and consolidate their unity,” said Al-Attiyah.
There were serious discussions among member countries on whether to ride out the tumbling US dollar or sever currency pegs. The UAE said it could consider revaluing after talks with other GCC members. “We will do that after consulting with GCC colleagues,” UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah ibn Zayed Al-Nahayan told reporters. A GCC official said the draft summit statement did not make any reference to the issue.
An Omani official said ministers were, however, discussing how to respond to the dollar’s tumble to record lows against the euro and a basket of currencies last month, fueling inflation by driving up the cost of Gulf imports. “There are those who think the dollar crisis is a temporary one that would end in a few months,” Oman’s foreign affairs minister told Qatar’s Al-Sharq newspaper. “However there are those who see it necessary to delink Gulf currencies from the dollar and replace it with a basket of currencies as Kuwait has done,” Youssef ibn Alawi ibn Abdullah said. “And the ministers are studying this,” he added.
— Additional input from agencies
