GCC official says the Gulf regimes continue to oppose a strike against Iran

The Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes two of the states that were included in the recent Cheney trip, namely the UAE and Saudi Arabia, held a scheduled "consultative" meeing earlier this week, and on Wednesday Al-Hayat summarized points in the communique and in press-conference statements by the GCC's secretary general, Abdulrahman bin Hamad al-Atiya. The communique included the expected exortations to the Palestinians to return to the Mecca accord; to the Maliki administration to work toward national reconciliation; regret on continuing tensions in Lebanon; and so on. They studied details of the recent Cheney trip, and and they heard a report on the visit of Ahmedinejad to the UAE, by the UAE president, who said his talks with Ahmedinejad focused on the Iranian desire for friendly and brotherly relations with all the countries of the Gulf. The GCC group talked about the need for a peaceful settlement of the issue of the three UAE islands occupied by Iran.

But what stands out is the following: Atiya said in his press-conference that the cause of the instability in Iraq is the illegal American occupation of that country; he noted he was using the same expression that was used by the Saudi king at the recent Riyadh summit; and he said the meeting affirmed the GCC policy against a military strike against Iran. Atiya's remarks were in the following context:

Where the final communique...warned against external intervention in Iraq, Atiya, in his press-conference remarks, laid upon illegal American occupation of Iraq the responsibility for the crisis in Iraq. And he added that was the expression used by the guardian of the two holy places king Abdullah bin Abdulaziz at the recent Riyadh summit.

And with respect to Iran, where the communique was limited to a call for a peaceful solution that will spare Iran and the region any more tension, Atiya said the Sunni leaders studied the danger of a military strike against Iran, and he said this consultative summit stuck to the fixed position of the GCC to the effect that it does not support the resort to a military strike against Iran.