‘Gulf Arab states will oppose US strike on Iran’

OMAR HASAN KUWAIT CITY – Iran’s influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said yesterday he was sure the Islamic republic’s Gulf neighbours would not support any US assault on his country over its nuclear programme.

“We are certain that Gulf countries will not back the United States in waging an attack on Iran,” Rafsanjani said on the second day of a visit to Kuwait aimed at allaying fears in the region over Iran’s nuclear activities. “The talk about a US attack on Iran is nonsense and we are sure the Americans would not want create problems for themselves.”Rafsanjani, who heads Iran’s powerful Expediency Council, met with Kuwaiti deputies after holding talks with the emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.His visit follows Iran’s announcement last week that it had successfully enriched uranium to the level needed to make reactor fuel, triggering global concern about its nuclear ambitions.Uranium enrichment can be extended to make weapons, and the UN Security Council has given Iran’s hardline leadership until April 28 to freeze the sensitive fuel cycle work.Kuwaiti parliament speaker Jassem al-Khorafi tried to play down the worries in the Gulf over Iran’s nuclear facilities, including a reactor being built with Russian help in Bushehr across the Gulf, and its standoff with the West.”I am personally not worried because I believe it’s for peaceful purposes,” he told reporters after meeting Rafsanjani.”I see nothing that should make us afraid.”The fallout from a fresh conflict in the Gulf would be catastrophic for oil markets given that nearly 20 per cent of the world’s daily oil shipments pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz.And an influential deputy said the oil-rich region was fearful of the escalating tension in Shi’ite-ruled Iran.”The Iranians are escalating daily and this is terrifying not just for the international community but for the region as well,” said Mohammed Jassem al-Sagr, a liberal deputy, who heads parliament’s foreign relations committee.He said Iran had to take practical measures on the ground beyond verbal assurances to comfort its Arab neighbours, but did not give details.Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah said last week that Iran’s nuclear activities must remain under the close watch of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).US-ally Kuwait and other Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states are concerned about the possibility that the current standoff may develop into a full-scale military confrontation and fear a possible environmental catastrophe from the Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr.Kuwait’s leading liberal newspaper Al-Qabas warned in an editorial on Sunday that Gulf states may be the main victims of a possible US-Iranian military confrontation.”Our Iranian brothers have placed us – the people on the other bank of the Gulf – right in the middle of the confrontation…against our will, and we may become its main victim,” the daily said.The region has witnessed three major conflicts in the last quarter century – the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, the 1991 Gulf war to end Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait, and the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.- Nampa-AFP”The talk about a US attack on Iran is nonsense and we are sure the Americans would not want create problems for themselves.”Rafsanjani, who heads Iran’s powerful Expediency Council, met with Kuwaiti deputies after holding talks with the emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.His visit follows Iran’s announcement last week that it had successfully enriched uranium to the level needed to make reactor fuel, triggering global concern about its nuclear ambitions.Uranium enrichment can be extended to make weapons, and the UN Security Council has given Iran’s hardline leadership until April 28 to freeze the sensitive fuel cycle work.Kuwaiti parliament speaker Jassem al-Khorafi tried to play down the worries in the Gulf over Iran’s nuclear facilities, including a reactor being built with Russian help in Bushehr across the Gulf, and its standoff with the West.”I am personally not worried because I believe it’s for peaceful purposes,” he told reporters after meeting Rafsanjani.”I see nothing that should make us afraid.”The fallout from a fresh conflict in the Gulf would be catastrophic for oil markets given that nearly 20 per cent of the world’s daily oil shipments pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz.And an influential deputy said the oil-rich region was fearful of the escalating tension in Shi’ite-ruled Iran.”The Iranians are escalating daily and this is terrifying not just for the international community but for the region as well,” said Mohammed Jassem al-Sagr, a liberal deputy, who heads parliament’s foreign relations committee.He said Iran had to take practical measures on the ground beyond verbal assurances to comfort its Arab neighbours, but did not give details.Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah said last week that Iran’s nuclear activities must remain under the close watch of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).US-ally Kuwait and other Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states are concerned about the possibility that the current standoff may develop into a full-scale military confrontation and fear a possible environmental catastrophe from the Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr.Kuwait’s leading liberal newspaper Al-Qabas warned in an editorial on Sunday that Gulf states may be the main victims of a possible US-Iranian military confrontation.”Our Iranian brothers have placed us – the people on the other bank of the Gulf – right in the middle of the confrontation…against our will, and we may become its main victim,” the daily said.The region has witnessed three major conflicts in the last quarter century – the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, the 1991 Gulf war to end Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait, and the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.- Nampa-AFP