Iran FM Stresses Expansion Of Ties With PGCC Member States

Tehran, Feb 25, IRNA – Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi underlined the importance of development of ties with the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council in all fields and in particular in the field of economy. He made the remarks in an introductory meeting of High Persian Gulf Council on Sunday. Iranian ambassadors to the Persian Gulf states, governors general of Persian Gulf neighboring provinces as well as members of related committees attended the meeting. ˈAny kind of instability and insecurity in the region will harm all regional countries; Iran is committed to expand relations with the PGCC countries based on the mutual respect and non-interference policy.ˈ Iranian FM added that Persian Gulf security should be provided by the regional states through a framework of collective cooperation. Salehi pointed to the enemiesˈ conspiracies to make division among regional countries and asked neighboring provincesˈ local officials to do their best to activate economic collaboration between Iran and PGCC countries. On December 3, 2007, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the 28th PGCC summit in Doha in which he submitted 12 proposals meant to ˈreinforce brotherly tiesˈ and ˈpromote cooperationˈ among Persian Gulf littoral states and Iran. Established in 1981, the PGCC was originally conceived as a way for conservative Arab Persian Gulf states to avoid involvement in the Iran-Iraq War, which had begun the previous year and went on until 1988. The PGCCˈs most significant action in recent years has been to give the fig leaf of respectability to Saudi-UAE armed intervention in Bahrain during the uprising in March 2011. The council has done little in the way of institutional development, however. At last yearˈs summit in Riyadh, King Abdullah proposed a ˈ(Persian) Gulf Unionˈ that would bring member-states into a confederation, but there is nothing to show for it. Meanwhile, the Saudis have yet to make any breakthroughs in their mid-2011 proposal to admit Morocco and Jordan into the PGCC./end