Gulf Arab summit lukewarm to Iran charm offensive

By Mohammed Abbas

DOHA (Reuters) - A Gulf Arab summit ended on Tuesday with no initiatives to ease tensions over Tehran's nuclear program and territorial disputes, though Iran hailed its debut guest appearance as a great success.

In contrast to claims by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- the first Iranian president to attend the summit -- of a new era of regional brotherhood, Gulf Arab leaders gave a lukewarm response to Iran's proposals for cooperation.

The burning issues of Iran's nuclear ambitions, tensions with the West and sovereignty over disputed islands claimed by Iran and the United Arab Emirates, were largely unaddressed.

"Iran is a big country in this region and has its own interests. We might not agree with all its policies but it is important that we all live in the region in peace," Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani told a news conference after the summit ended.

The members of the Gulf Cooperation Council -- Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain -- were still digesting news that a new U.S. intelligence report said that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago.

Uncertainty over the details meant most GCC members still feared that any conflict would destabilize the region, and worried that non-Arab Shi'ite Iran might one day use nuclear arms to dominate the region.

Throughout Ahmadinejad's lengthy news conference on Sunday, and at the summit's opening ceremony, he repeatedly referred to the region as the Persian Gulf, which to Gulf Arab states indicates unwelcome territorial ambitions.

The meeting's final statement called for a peaceful solution to the nuclear standoff between Iran and the West, labeling the impasse a crisis, a word Ahmadinejad has rejected.

The statement reaffirmed the right of all nations to peaceful nuclear technology and called on Israel -- which has not publicly acknowledged having a nuclear arsenal -- to join the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

IRAN NUCLEAR CRISIS OVER?

At the news conference, Sheikh Hamad was asked whether the findings of the U.S. intelligence report meant the crisis over Iran's nuclear work was over.

"We don't have information apart from what we have from the (International) Atomic Energy Agency and our brothers in Iran that this program is peaceful and we hope this program is peaceful," he said.

The final statement also backed the UAE's right to three islands claimed by Iran, and called on Tehran to respond to the Gulf state's efforts to resolve the problem through talks.

"The GCC expresses its regret that contacts with Iran did not yield any positive result in reaching an agreement in solving the issue of the three islands," the statement said.

Ahmadinejad's 12-point proposal for greater security and economic cooperation in the region were mostly a repetition of previous overtures that Gulf Arab states have largely ignored.