GCC countries tackle risks and threats

In light of the regional rampage of the Iranian mullahs’ regime, all the countries in the region may have no choice but to join forces and stand shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, against this grave threat. This situation has become a security challenge not only in the region but also globally.

In fact, Iran treats regional ports and territorial waters as if they were its own property. It does as it pleases, without any respect for international laws, conventions and norms, especially those dealing with the sovereignty of states over their land, airspace and territorial waters.

This is reflected in Iran’s behavior in targeting ships of other countries crossing international waters. In the face of this Iranian ignominy, it is the right of neighboring countries, and inevitably their duty, to develop strategies and seek mechanisms to address the growing Iranian threat.

This includes both strengthening the existing strategic alliance with the great powers and building new alliances with regional states that are themselves exposed to the Iranian threat. Any Iranian reservation or surprise at these alliances, whether real or not, becomes absurd.

It is the policies of the mullahs that have prompted the regional countries to adopt appropriate measures to protect the gains of their people and respond to any Iranian threat with urgency, with statements that always speak of targeting regional countries in the event of a military strike against Iran by any party.

Targeting the regional states has even become a mantra for the mullahs’ regime’s leaders and officials, even if they would receive a military strike from extraterrestrial beings. This is a matter of provocation and nonsense unworthy of sovereign states.

In addition, these absurd threats show the mullahs’ lack of moral and political principles in matters of good neighborliness and other issues to which they keep referring when their relations with the great powers they fear are strained. They also show how important it is for the GCC countries to have strategic plans to deal with such scenarios that the mullahs’ policies have raised to the level of possibilities.

The GCC countries, as well as all countries in the region, have the right to establish security or military alliances as long as they feel a threat to their security and sovereignty on their territory. The right to self-defense is a sovereign right guaranteed by international laws and conventions. It does not constitute an infringement on the sovereignty of other parties.

The fanfare media that strives to harm our countries on this front should look back at their promotional rhetoric and unconvincing justifications for security alliances already concluded by regional parties supported and financed by regional powers with clear ambitions in other Arab countries.

They even occupy parts of Arab countries, as in Syria and Libya. In today’s world, alliances are no longer based on ideology or even resonant slogans, as they once were.

Alliances have become tactical, provisional, tied to temporal objectives and based on principles and criteria of interest, without ideological reference or basis. Strategic threats are evolving rapidly and common or mutual interests are the primary objective of states. But there are regimes that still live outside history.

They hold an old colonial mentality in search of domination and influence. They treat others with a superiority that prevents them from seeing the reality of the developments and differences that have taken place after decades of successful planning and hard work to use the resources and wealth of nations to provide a decent way of life for their citizens.

When some GCC countries decided to establish official relations with Israel, the mullahs tried to promote this decision as an alleged “betrayal” of the Palestinian cause and people.

Since they have failed in this plot, because neither the Palestinian cause nor the Palestinian people have gained much ever since Khomeini’s revolution of 1979, they are now trying to challenge any initiative to strengthen bilateral relations between these countries and Israel. The demagoguery is unmasked.

No one is unaware anymore of the real sources of threat and danger, both for Israel and for the GCC countries.

In conclusion, the only way out for the Iranian mullahs in the face of the changing regional strategic reality is to coexist as a normal, responsible and international law-abiding state. Without such, the isolation of this wretched regime will deepen regionally and internationally. It will remain stuck waiting for an inevitable breakup on the hands of the Iranian people who are paying a heavy bill for its unpopular policies.

They hold an old colonial mentality in search of domination and influence. They treat others with a superiority that prevents them from seeing the reality of the developments and differences that have taken place after decades of successful planning and hard work to use the resources and wealth of nations to provide a decent way of life for their citizens.

When some GCC countries decided to establish official relations with Israel, the mullahs tried to promote this decision as an alleged “betrayal” of the Palestinian cause and people.

Since they have failed in this plot, because neither the Palestinian cause nor the Palestinian people have gained much ever since Khomeini’s revolution of 1979, they are now trying to challenge any initiative to strengthen bilateral relations between these countries and Israel. The demagoguery is unmasked.

No one is unaware anymore of the real sources of threat and danger, both for Israel and for the GCC countries.

In conclusion, the only way out for the Iranian mullahs in the face of the changing regional strategic reality is to coexist as a normal, responsible and international law-abiding state. Without such, the isolation of this wretched regime will deepen regionally and internationally. It will remain stuck waiting for an inevitable breakup on the hands of the Iranian people who are paying a heavy bill for its unpopular policies.

By Salem AlKetbi

UAE political analyst and former Federal National Council candidate