GCC makes its united voice heard

In a year already marked by revolutionary change in the Arab world, the Gulf Cooperation Council has emerged as a bold, assertive player on the international stage.

On March 5, the GCCvoiced key support for the no-fly zone over Libya, five days before the Arab League took similar action. Within weeks, the UAE and Qatar sent F-16 and Mirage fighter jets to mainland Europe to enforce the zone.

The GCC has moved decisively in its own back yard, too, announcing its own version of the Marshall Plan with a $20 billion aid package for Oman and Bahrain and, to the criticism of the Obama administration, supporting the deployment of troops and police officers from Saudi Arabia and the UAE to Bahrain.

And on Sunday, the GCC again made clear it would be forceful in defending its interests in the Gulf.

At a meeting of its foreign ministers in Riyadh, it denounced what it described as Iran's "blatant interference" in Arab Gulf affairs on the one hand, while offering to mediate in the Yemen crisis on the other.

A statement released after the meeting concluded with a call for Tehran to end its "hostile policies and respect the rules of good neighbourliness … so as to preserve the security and stability in this region which is key for the entire world."

Tehran reacted strongly yesterday. Kazem Jalili, the powerful chairman of the parliament's foreign policy committee, described the GCC's condemnation as "emotional" and said his country "will never interfere in the internal affairs of its neighbours".

Yet by jointly condemning what they said was "continuing Iranian meddling in the region," the GCC's member states - the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain - signalled a more decisive role for the organisation.

That has enormous implications for the future of a region in a period of far-reaching change, experts say.

Kenneth Pollack, director of the Saban Centre for Middle East Police at the Brookings Institution and a former member of the White House's National Security Council, said: "It's potentially very important. The GCC engages a lot of countries and a lot of people's interests."

Dr John Esposito, a professor of religion and Islamic studies at Georgetown University and the author of The Future of Islam, said: "This level of involvement just sets an incredible precedent."

For leading figures in the GCC, there is no doubt that the times call for deep engagement.

Speaking last month at the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) in Abu Dhabi, the UAE's Foreign Minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, said the impact of regional events on GCC states "will be huge and the effects long standing".

So far, Western allies have agreed. General Jean-Paul Palomeros, commander of France's air force, described the GCC states' military involvement in Libya as "a turning point in history. It really shows the courage [of Qatar] to enlist at our sides".

The GCC's more assertive stance has not been without controversy, as the deployment of about 2,000 security forces to Bahrain showed. International observers said the upheaval in Bahrain, which in part represents a sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites, will have significant geopolitical repercussions for weeks, months and perhaps years to come.

Sean Kane, Iraq programme director for the US Institute of Peace and a former United Nations official in Baghdad, said: "The overt violence in Libya has attracted the greatest attention and international response, but from the standpoint of wider regional dynamics Bahrain may ultimately prove to be more consequential."

Sending Saudi Arabian and Emirati forces to Bahrain at the request of its government "has reverberated throughout the strategically important Gulf, with actors on either side of the regional cold war between Saudi Arabia and Iran lining up to welcome or criticise the GCC intervention".

Despite the uncertainties ahead, members of the GCC say the regional bloc's newfound punch is here to stay. At home, the tough and confident talk to Tehran has boosted regional pride, brought accolades from western allies and strengthened the GCC's bulwark against what it sees as expanding Iranian influence.

Influential regional figures such as Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki Al Faisal, a senior member of the royal family and the kingdom's former intelligence chief, say the challenges that loom ahead for the GCC are daunting.

"We cannot rely on the fact that the conditions that allowed for us stability and growth will remain for a long time," Prince Turki said last month in a speech at the ECSSR.

If this is true, the advent of a bold GCC has come at just the right time.

cmcdermid@thenational.ae