Arab opinion welcomes Iran report

MIDDLE EAST:Arab opinion seems to have been greatly relieved by the news that the US National Intelligence Estimate found that Iran halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003.

The last thing Arabs want is US military action against a second regional state on the pretext that it is developing nuclear arms.

But relief was tempered with caution. The Jordan Times cited International Atomic Energy Agency director Muhammad ElBaradei, who said: that Iran would still be asked to "clarify specific aspects of its past and present nuclear programme", opening the way, the paper observed, for certain parties to query Iran's clarifications and maintaining the threat of war.

The Gulf Today, a daily based in the United Arab Emirates, took a similar line, holding that Washington was likely to seek "alternatives to continue its drive against Iran", warning Tehran against carrying on with its defiance and urging a shift to diplomacy to resolve issues between Iran and the West.

Nabil Abdel Fattah, an analyst with al-Ahram's Centre for Strategic Studies in Cairo, felt that the Gulf states might feel reassured because they had been threatened with attack if Washington mounted strikes on Iran, while Tehran could try to use the report to "widen the rift" between the US and the Arabs.

Several analysts pointed out that the publication of the estimate, compiled by 16 US intelligence agencies, coincided with Monday's Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) summit which was addressed by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who proposed a 12-point plan for security, economic, and environmental co-operation between GCC members and Iran.

Lebanon's labour minister, Trad Hamadeh, said Mr Ahmadinejad's words "opened a new chapter for co-operation between Arab countries with a large power like Iran" and called on GCC leaders to respond positively to Tehran's appeal.

"Now everybody has realised the danger of the unilateral policy of the US in support of Israel," he said.

On Wednesday, Arab newspaper and television commentators castigated President Bush for threatening a third world war if Iran developed the nuclear bomb, although he had been briefed in July on the contents of the report.