NATO LEGISLATORS HELD FIRST SEMINAR IN THE GULF

1.         Parliamentarians and members of consultative councils from NATO countries, the Mediterranean partner countries and the GCC states met in Doha from November 26-28 to explore the security situation and exchange views about the state of political and social reform in the region. The 11^th Mediterranean Dialogue seminar of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly aimed at confidence building and increasing cooperation in the context of NATO’s Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, to which four GCC states so far belong. Complementary to this intergovernmental cooperation, Alliance parliamentarians sought to increase their understanding of the regional challenges, of a possible role for NATO in a new security architecture, and where the Assembly could be of help in encouraging engagement through parliamentary dialogue and cooperation.

2.         Delivering the keynote speech, Rami Khouri, editor-at-large of the Beirut based Daily Star, noted that the Middle East finds itself at a historical crossroads for change. Together with other speakers, he welcomed an involvement of the countries of the Alliance, as long as it was legitimate and respectful of the values of the region. Political changes, already slowly but unevenly underway, were urgently needed to counter the endemic structural inequalities. In this respect, the goal of political change was not defined as “democracy” as such – seen too easily as a Western or US imposed concept – but rather the principles of “participation, representation, and accountability”, all of which have a solid basis in Islamic tradition. According to Khouri what people of the region really wanted was “dignity and justice”. He insisted that parliamentarians had a key role to play in ensuring “reform not through feat but through engagement”.

3.         The most immediate threats to the GCC countries were said to emanate from the continuous instability in Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The latter is increasingly perceived by some as revolutionary and threatening to the security of the region. Fears were expressed about an arms race in the region in the event that Iran acquires nuclear weapon capabilities as a second country in the region after Israel. This is reflected by skyrocketing defense budgets in GCC countries, as Riad Al-Kahwahji of Defense News showed in his presentation. In this view, current Iranian policies only reinforce the case for foreign involvement and, according to Ibtesam al-Kitbi from UAE University, “push GCC states under the American umbrella.” Anoush Ehteshami of Durham University and Munira Fakhro of Bahrein University, on the other hand, also noted the strong commercial and strategic links between Iran and the GCC. Since some countries shared natural resources with Iran, they saw far more prospects for cooperation. However, institutions were lacking to facilitate dialogue with Iran. This dialogue could, for example, also take place on the parliamentary level.

4.         In his presentation about reconstruction in Iraq, Daniel Speckhard, head of the Reconstruction Management Office at the US Embassy in Baghdad, emphasized the progress made so far and the signs of increasing political stability with a government that for the first time will serve for a whole year. Saad bin Tefla al-Ajmi, former Minister of Information of Kuwait, pointed towards a reshaping of political forces and the creation of a liberal list headed by Iyyad Alawi, which could appeal to a wide and ethnically mixed spectrum of voters. At the same time, both speakers were cautious in their predictions about the near future and did not expect an end of the violence in the immediate future. This was due to a substantial foreign involvement and the recent history of Iraq, which was much bloodier than others in the region. Foreign involvement fuels terrorism in Iraq as elsewhere in the region. This reality thus has to be taken into account by any discussion about a role of NATO in the Gulf. According to Hassan Al-Ansari, the transatlantic and international character of the alliance is an asset in this respect, since it can substitute for the perceived unilateral US American involvement.  “Do not let the US do it alone”.

5.         Ultimately, most speakers agreed that terrorism had to be tackled from within the states and that there was a limited role for foreign involvement. This raised again the issue of political reform which is even more important at a time when the majority of the population in the Arab world are educated urban dwellers, albeit with high unemployment levels, and there is a danger of a revival of ethnic and tribal fragmentations.  Munira Fakhro showed that civil society organizations were thriving in the Gulf but were confined to non-political activities, which seriously curtailed their role in advancing change. Reflecting on the role of Islam, Aisha al-Mannai, dean of Sharia Law at the University of Qatar, said that there was no contradiction between Islam and the establishment of accountable systems at various levels in society, and she laid out the foundations in the Quran such as the principle of consultation (shura) and the responsibility of the ruler towards the ruled. Despite strong resistance of governments to allow far-reaching political reforms, progress has been made in the field of media. Faisal al-Kasim, host of the controversial program “The opposite direction”, noted that al-Jazeera is today “the only genuine parliament” in the Arab world. The continuation of liberalization and professionalisation of the media thus play an important role for reforms. The attending parliamentarians took a great interest especially in the political reform process and stressed the importance of the continuation of dialogue between the Allies and the GCC countries on the parliamentary level. This will ultimately help to clarify and improve the image of NATO and its members in the region and reduce mutual prejudices.

6.         The seminar, a first in the region, represented a further stage in the development of contacts between the NATO PA and the Gulf States.  It provided a timely opportunity for the sharing of perspectives and interests on regional security concerns and on the scale and nature of the political reforms needed in Gulf countries and elsewhere in the Arab world and the compatibility of such reforms with Islam.  Sufficient common ground was shown to exist to constitute a basis for further contacts.  Paramount was the sense that engagement by the parliamentary side of the Alliance was a crucial corollary to NATO's own activities within the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative. The nature of this engagement will be further explored by the Assembly's Mediterranean Special Group and its Standing Committee.

Source: www.nato-pa.int