Obama’s Arab summit: a low-key beginning
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WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama began six hours of consultations with Arab leaders at the Camp David presidential resort on Thursday afternoon as part of a summit meeting called to offer security guarantees to the Gulf states.
Although all six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council are attending the summit, only two – Kuwait and Qatar – have sent their rulers. All others have sent their crown princes or prime ministers.
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain instead travelled to Britain on Thursday to attend a horse show with Queen Elizabeth.
The summit aims to assure GCC states that a nuclear deal that the United States and five other world powers are concluding with Iran would not affect their security.
Media representatives were allowed into the briefing room for a brief preview during which they saw President Obama chatting with a leader sitting to his right, the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
In statements issued to the media before the meeting, GCC nations indicated that they were seeking new US security guarantees and military assistance to counter any Iranian threat. Apparently, they are looking for an arrangement that the United States
has with some of its allies – such as South Korea – which requires Washington to send its forces to deal with a possible aggression.
US officials, however, have indicated that while Mr Obama may offer some guarantees, it will not offer a South Korea like arrangement.
In return for whatever guarantee he offers, the US president wants GCC leaders to support the nuclear deal, which needs to be finalised by June 30.
The US media, however, noted that anything short of a joint defence plan would not please GCC leaders and many of them opted out of the summit to show their frustration with the proposed nuclear deal.
In an interview with the Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat a day before the summit, Mr Obama assured the Arab world that he too saw Iran as a trouble-maker and was also committed to creating a separate state for the Palestinians.
Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2015
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