More Top Picks Best Cat Trees
player ready...RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia and Bahrain will weigh closer political union at a summit of Gulf Arab leaders on Monday aimed at pooling efforts to neutralize Shi’ite Muslim protests in the region that they believe is instigated by Iran.
Iran denies that it is behind unrest among Shi’ites in oil-producing, Sunni Muslim-led monarchies across the Gulf. But after popular uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world over the past year, U.S.-allied Gulf Arab leaders are increasingly concerned that an uprising in Bahrain could bring a Gulf Arab nation under Iranian sway.
“The summit will discuss all the points, including the points of union,” said Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa after preparatory talks in Riyadh on Sunday.
When leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which also takes in Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, met in December, Saudi King Abdullah called on the six to move “to the stage of unity in a single entity”.
While Gulf analysts say smaller GCC members are averse to further integration, fearing a loss of sovereignty and influence in a region of traditional feuds, politicians from Bahrain have speculated about a confederation with Saudi Arabia.
“I expect there will be an announcement of two or three countries. We can’t be sure but I have a strong expectation,” said Bahraini Information Minister Samira Rajab on Sunday.
The tiny island state, which like other GCC members is ruled by a pro-U.S. Sunni dynasty, has been wracked by a revolt among its majority Shi’ites for more than a year, after temporarily suppressing it in March 2011 with the help of Saudi troops.
Saudi Arabia, by far the largest and most powerful of the Gulf Arab states, already buoys Bahrain’s economy with a gift of oil to supply an important refinery and enjoys close personal ties with the ruling Al Khalifa clan.
Riyadh fears that Bahrain’s pro-democracy movement has the potential to spill over into its own Shi’ite-populated Eastern Province region, home to major oilfields.
However, Bahrain’s foreign minister told Reuters on Sunday that “the union covers all the countries”, when asked about the possibility of a solely two-track approach.
BAHRAIN UNREST FESTERS
Monday’s discussions between the six ruling dynasties, to take place in a lavish Riyadh palace, will be closely watched on the streets of Bahrain where the main opposition has denounced the idea of greater union.
“The aim of the Saudi regime in the future is the exclusion of Shi’ites in Bahrain,” senior opposition Wefaq official Jasim Husain said on Sunday.
He was speaking a day after protesters burned tires and clashed with police, the latest episode in 15 months of unrest that activists say has killed 81 people. Bahrain’s government says demonstrators were responsible for many of the killings.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, believes the unrest in Bahrain, and among its own Shi’ite minority, has been stirred by Iran, its Shi’ite rival across the Gulf.
The two powers have backed opposing sectarian factions in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon and Riyadh has urged the United States to strike at Iran’s nuclear program, which it fears is aimed at developing an atomic bomb, something Tehran denies.
Another perceived threat spurring Gulf Arab integration moves is al Qaeda, whose militants have flourished in the disorder arising from the uprising in Yemen, on Saudi Arabia’s southwest flank.
Analysts say that by joining up with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia would gain more control over its tiny neighbor’s security and send a message of Sunni Arab unity to Iran.
However, not all Saudis think integration is a good idea.
“If we join with Bahrain we risk importing their problems,” said Abdullah al-Shammari, a Saudi political analyst.
More Top Picks Samsung Galaxy Fit
Some of the other GCC members might also oppose further convergence of the 31-year-old council for fear their independence will be curtailed by Riyadh.
“Qatar sees this all as Saudi’s way of undermining the Gulf states’ bilateral relations,” a source close to the Qatari government said on Friday.
(Editing by Reed Stevenson and Mark Heinrich)