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Gulf Countries to Play Role in Iran Nuclear Negotiations

Arab states from the Gulf have joined talks with the six Western nations preparing to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program.

Envoys from the Arab states are said to have met at the United Nations headquarters in New York over the weekend with the ‘P5-plus-one’ group: the U.S., China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany.

"It will be in the best interests of everybody that this situation stays under control," said Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the United Arab Emirates’ Minister of Foreign Affairs, following the disclosure of a secret Iranian nuclear site under development near the holy city of Qom. "The new facility is being looked at by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and it seems there will be positive co-operation with Iran for inspecting this site."

Jeffrey Feltman, the US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, spoke of "ongoing consultation with our Gulf friends about what is our policy toward Iran and how we are going to address the October 1 dialogue with Iran… There’s a profound concern on their part that we do not try anything that could be construed as trading their interests for our interests."

The ‘P5-plus-one’ group is set to meet with Iran on Thursday in Geneva.

Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated he has no objection to Gulf countries directly joining the talks.

Gulf States, fearing the encroachment of Iranian power throughout the region, have urged the country’s leadership to comply with international demands regarding the development of its nuclear program.

"Nuclear weapons is a tough issue, but it’s hard to know whether all this is just talk," Dr Ghanim A-Najjar, a political scientist at Kuwait University, told The Media Line. "Nuclear weapons are not a joke and I don’t think Iran will go that far. They don’t have the ability, the technology is not available to them."

Dr A-Najjar argued that recent efforts by Gulf States to explore nuclear power were in direct response to Iran’s nuclear development. "The Gulf States want to put pressure on Iran with threats of their own nuclear energy plans."

"But I don’t see how Gulf States can be serious about nuclear development," he added. "There’s a big step between saying we want nuclear power to actually having it and I don’t think the Gulf States are capable of this kind of development."

Dr Stephen Steinbeiser, Resident Director of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies, argued that there was more concern over Iran’s overall influence in the region than the potential of a nuclear armed Iran.

"People are definitely interested in Iran," he told The Media Line. "If one day it’s proven that Iran has nuclear weapons the balance of power in the Middle East really squeezes Arabs out of the middle between Iran and Israel. That’s something that makes people pause and people are starting to question just how powerful Arab states really are."

"The Israelis have a very palpable fear of Iran," he said. "Yemenis don’t have that but there’s a concern about the influence that Iran is presumed to yield."

"People here are less interested in these negotiations than in what is perceived to be Iranian interference in the northern rebellion," he said, referring to an ongoing military conflict between Yemen’s central government and a Houthi-led rebellion in the country’s North. "You never hear it in the mainstream media but locally people feel that the northern rebels are receiving Iranian support and that this is not so much a war against rebels but a war against Iranian intrusion."