By MOHAMED OSMAN
DOHA: A former Saudi diplomat yesterday suggested that the GCC states must make efforts to include more Shia citizens in key state decision-making bodies so that they could help initiate a dialogue with Iran to end the misgivings and mistrust between the two sides.
Dr Abdullah Al Shammari was speaking at a symposium on Arab-Iran relations organised by the Forum for Arab and International Relations. The event ended here yesterday. Al Shammari said mistrust between Iran and the GCC states was the result of ignorance. This ignorance was giving rise to “Iranphobia” in the GCC region, he said.
The mistrust and misunderstandings between the two sides can be removed if the GCC states begin accommodating their Shia citizens in key government positions and hold a dialogue with Tehran with their help, he said.
A former Iranian culture minister, Ataullah Muhajiran, said while addressing the symposium that he wondered why the Arabs had turned against Iran after the revolution of 1979.
Taking a dig at Arabs, he hinted that during the era of the Shah in the pre-revolution days, Iran was very close to the US and Tehran’s relations with the Arabs were warm and cordial.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was formed six months after the Iranian revolution, he said, hinting that its aim was to form a shield against Tehran. And then, Iraq (an Arab nation) had attacked Iran (after the revolution), he said.
He questioned accusations made by some Arabs that Iran was increasing a sectarian divide along Sunni-Shia lines. “Then, may I ask what the Arabs are doing? Aren’t they talking about Sunnis and fanning the rift with Shias?”
Why was the entire Arab world silent when Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, was targeting Shias in Iraq, he asked. Muhajiran said it was not right to refer to Shias in the entire Middle East as a minority because they were in the majority in many countries, including Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain.
The former Iranian minister lambasted the GCC states and said he wondered why they were so much scared of Iran’s nuclear programme when the fact was that both they and Iran were Muslims. “They should instead be scared of Israel’s nuclear capabilities and talking about it,” he said.
The Peninsula
