M Santhananaban
The United Arab Emirates has now joined Saudi Arabia and Qatar in calling on the United States to make greater efforts to end the war with Iran.
All three Gulf Cooperation Council countries have endured extensive damage to their economies – and to the reputations of their governing elites — since the US-Israeli strikes began on 28 February.
The picture, however, is not entirely clear-cut. Some Gulf states have also privately urged Washington to keep fighting until Iran is more decisively weakened, reflecting a divided and shifting set of interests among US allies in the region.
But it is increasingly clear that these joint acts of aggression against Iran and Lebanon by the US-Israeli axis have become untenable, unpopular and impossible to contain.
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The plea by the GCC countries that a carefully negotiated peace must be given a chance has to be heeded by the US. Let us hope sanity prevails.
Encouragingly, there are strong signals that the US and Iran may reach some kind of preliminary understanding soon on a framework for peace.
US President Donald Trump himself said yesterday that a deal had been “largely negotiated”, subject to finalisation, raising hopes that the worst may be over.
Yet in these negotiations, the US is the party more likely to deviate from the peace process, whether by launching new strikes or by assuming the Iranians can be caught unprepared.
Iran seems to have anticipated this.
The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to its pre-28 February status remains the most sought-after objective. Let us hope there is real progress.
Dato’ M Santhananaban is a former Malaysian ambassador with 45 years of public sector experience.
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