President Barack Obama opened a summit with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies yesterday, seeking to convince them of Washington’s commitment to their security despite deep concern among Arab leaders about US efforts to broker a nuclear deal with Iran.
Hosting the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council for a rare summit at the Camp David presidential retreat, Obama faced the challenge of allaying their fears of US disengagement at a time of Middle East upheaval while also pressing the oil-rich Gulf states to work together in their own defence.
Tension over US policy towards Tehran, Syria’s civil war and the Arab Spring uprisings will loom over the meetings, which have already been clouded by the absence of most of the Gulf’s ruling monarchs, who instead sent lower-level officials.
Saudi King Salman pulled out, sending Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in his place in a move widely interpreted as a snub that reflected Gulf frustration with the Obama administration. The White House has said such decisions were not intended as slights and has portrayed the summit as more than just a symbolic event. But US officials have also played down the prospects for any major breakthroughs.
White House officials have said there would be no formal defence treaty, as some Gulf leaders sought, and that the summit is likely to produce more modest announcements on integrating ballistic missile defence systems, easing weapons deliveries and increasing joint military exercises.
Other members of the GCC are Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
There will be no formal defence treaty
Obama and the Gulf Sunni leaders sat at a long, rectangular table inside Camp David’s rustic cabin-like conference centre. Sunni Arab leaders are concerned that lifting Western sanctions as part of a nuclear deal with Shi’ite Iran would empower Tehran to act in further destabilising the region, especially in volatile countries such as Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
Adding weight to those concerns, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy fired warning shots over a Singapore-flagged cargo vessel in international waters in the Gulf yesterday, prompting the vessel to flee into United Arab Emirates’ territorial waters, according to US officials.
The US and five other world powers are in talks with Tehran to curb its atomic programme.
The Obama administration would like GCC support, or at least a toning-down of any criticism, for the deal to help convince a skeptical US Congress it has broad backing in the region.