MANAMA — Russia’s foreign minister used a Gulf meeting in Bahrain to offer a security plan and was handed a request in return. Bahrain’s foreign minister, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, told a Russia-Gulf Cooperation Council meeting on Sunday that the six-nation bloc expects Moscow to use its ties with Iran, TASS reported.
Zayani said the council expects Russia “to use its ties with Iran to encourage it to fully comply with” UN Security Council Resolution 2817, and to support Gulf participation “in any negotiations or agreements related to Iran’s nuclear and missile programs.” The states of the region, he added, are the most likely to suffer from those programs.
The text he cited is not one Moscow voted for. Resolution 2817 was adopted on March 11 by 13 votes to none, with China and Russia abstaining, according to UN Photo’s record of the session, and it condemned Iran’s attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. The Gulf is therefore asking Russia to press Tehran over a resolution it declined to back, at a meeting where Russia is offering its own alternative.
That alternative is an updated concept of collective security in the Gulf, which Lavrov called Moscow’s “contribution,” TASS reported. He said coastal states should be given “the decisive say” and proposed direct dialogue between Gulf states and neighbours such as Iraq and Jordan, with outsiders helping: the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and, “if you are interested,” the permanent members of the UN Security Council.
Lavrov said Moscow supports the Gulf council’s efforts to prevent a return to full-scale war in the Middle East, Anadolu Agency reported. He put growth in Russia-GCC trade at 45% last year, a figure TEH has not independently checked, and said economic cooperation “depends to a significant extent on the stability of the region.”
On the sidelines Lavrov met Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the two voiced concern about tensions in the south of the Arabian Peninsula and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and stressed unhindered passage for ships, TASS reported. Zayani thanked Moscow for helping shape the Security Council chairman’s statement of October 15 condemning Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, according to TASS, and said he hoped Russia would back a Saudi draft resolution aimed at protecting civilians, stopping the rebels’ attacks and curbing their financing and arms.
On Wednesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Borisenko told reporters Moscow had “not received any specific requests for mediation” over the conflict in the southern Arabian Peninsula, a point TEH covered in its report on Russia’s warning to the Houthis.
TASS reported that Lavrov’s regional tour ends in Tehran with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Whether he carries the Gulf’s request there, and what Tehran says to it, is not yet known.
