диссертация (1169608), страница 19
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Another important area of the Council's international activities is the“dialogue of civilizations, religions and cultures”, created at the initiative of KingAbdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the Former King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Indeed,this kind of “dialogue” is an important component in strengthening mutualunderstanding between peoples and ensuring security through international cooperation.Systemic and extraordinary meetings of foreign ministers of the countries of theCouncil of Cooperation of the Arab States of the Arabian Gulf are also held within theframework of the organization. As a result, a final document is drawn up expressing thejoint opinion of the member states on the most pressing issues of regional and globalpolicy, after which, according to practice, the document should be subsequently passedon to the approval by the heads of state.And yet, in the conditions of permanent regional instability, the member statesof the Council of Cooperation of the Arab States of the Arabian Gulf initially focusedon the military component as the main instrument for ensuring security in the ArabianGulf and throughout the region of the Middle East.
From the very beginning of theexistence of the Council, the issue of the establishment of national armed forces on thebasis of a unified strategy of the council was on the agenda217.215Мелкумян Е.С. ССАГПЗ в глобальных и региональных процессах. – М.: Институт востоковеденияРоссиискои Академии Наук М., 1999, - C. 12.216 ال رق م ية ال م ك ت بة// ال خ ل يجي ال ت عاون مج لس دول. [The digital library, GCC countries].
[Electronic resource]. –URL: http://www.gcc-sg.org/ar-sa/CognitiveSources/Pages/Agreements.aspx217Michael Barnett and Etel Solingen, ‘Designed to Fail or Failure of Design?’ The Origins and Legacy of theCCGS’, in Acharya and Johnstone, - 2010, - 180 p.74The first step towards achieving this goal was made in December 2000 inManama during the XXI Summit of the Cooperation Council, while the joint defensestrategy was adopted at the 30th Summit of the Council in Kuwait218. This strategycalled on the participating countries for defense integration and assumed the formationof a joint rapid reaction force.
In 2001, the Council countries established the SupremeDefense Council, as well as the system for identifying and tracking aircraft, the “Belt ofCooperation”. Formation of a unified air defense system “Shield of the World” hadbeen completed in 1995219.After the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, the Security Council's activitiesin the sphere of security became much more active. In 2005, at the initiative of theSaudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, an international anti-terrorist center wasestablished in Riyadh with the participation of all members of the organization, and in2006 a permanent antiterrorist commission of the Council of Cooperation of the ArabStates of the Arabian Gulf was set up.In addition, in June 2004, a delegation from the Council of Cooperation of theArab States of the Arabian Gulf participated in the Istanbul Summit of NATO, wherethe well-known “Istanbul Initiative” was adopted to develop relations with the countriesof the “broader Middle East" pertaining specifically to the countries of the Council toassist them in combating terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,conducting exercises and assisting in the preparation of the border guard.
Concerningthe Arab states of the Gulf, the initiative underscored NATO's readiness to cooperatewith the following Union members: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, the Kingdom ofSaudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. During the first three months of 2005, Bahrain,Qatar and Kuwait joined the Istanbul Initiative, and in June 2005 - the United ArabEmirates followed suit. The absence of Oman and Saudi Arabia on this list does notmean their rejection of contacts with NATO220.218 ال رق م ية ال م ك ت بة// ال خ ل يجي ال ت عاون مج لس دول.
[The digital library, GCC countries]. [Electronic resource]. –URL: http://www.gcc-sg.org/ar-sa/CognitiveSources/Pages/Agreements.aspx219Юрченко В. П. Военное сотрудничество аравийских монархий: намерения и реальность [Электронныйресурс] // Институт изучения Израиля и Ближнего Востока. – URL: http://www.iimes.ru/rus/stat/2002/22-12-02.htm220The Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI). Fact Sheet [Electronic resource] // North Atlantic TreatyOrganization. – URL: http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2014_04/20140331_140401-factsheet-ICI_en.pdf75At the time of the formation of the Council of Cooperation of the Arab States ofthe Arabian Gulf, the leaders of states were far from the idea of open cooperation withWestern countries, limiting their ties with them to bilateral agreements221.Only after the 1990s did the members of the Council begin to express theirwillingness to cooperate and strengthen relations primarily with Washington in thesphere of ensuring regional security.
After the riots in 2011 in Riyadh, the strategiccooperation forum of the Council of Cooperation of the Arab States of the Arabian Gulf- USA was held, during which the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of SaudiArabia openly announced the decision to form a joint commission of the Gulf and theUnited States on security affairs. The main goal of this structure was the creation of a“missile shield” to protect the region, and most importantly - to reduce the regional roleof Iran.
Dr Abdel Latif al-Zayani, secretary general of the association, stressed theparticular importance of the project, capable of repelling any “biological and radiationthreats”222.According to the widely held view amongst the Arab countries, the main sourceof threats and the main strategic enemy for the countries of the Council is the IslamicRepublic of Iran. Initially, in addition to the purely geopolitical component of thestruggle for forms of control over the territories, the problem lay also in politicoideological differences. In addition, Iran has for a long time adhered to a strictly antiWestern course, while the countries of the Council of Cooperation of the Arab States ofthe Arabian Gulf have considered the US and the EU countries as their strategicpartners. The Cooperation Council insists on a peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeliconflict and does not recognize Iran's contacts with Hamas and Hezbollah223.The antagonism between the two countries threatens not only the immediateparties to the conflict.
Thus, even before the conclusion of the “nuclear deal”, Israel hasrepeatedly stated its intention to destroy from the air underground uranium enrichment221Thomas W. Lippman The United States, the GCC, and Iran: The Crisis that Wasn’t [Electronic resource]//The Middle East Institute.– URL: http://www.mei.edu/content/article/united-states-gcc-and-iran-crisis-wasn%E2%80%99t222Leverett F. L. Iran: The Gulf between Us [Electronic resource]// New York Times.
2005. January 24. – URL:http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/24/opinion/the-gulf-between-us.html223Gulf States’ Policies on Syria [Electronic resource] // Centre for Strategic & International Studies. – URL:https://www.csis.org/analysis/gulf-states-policies-syria76centers in Iran, since, from the point of view of the Israeli authorities, the nuclearprogram threatens the security of this country and the region as a whole. Iran, in turn,promised to deliver strikes not only on Israel, but also on the military bases located inthe region224.The “export of the Islamic revolution” is an insurmountable obstacle to thesettlement of relations not only with individual countries of the Council, with whichTehran has developed particularly tense relations (as, for example, with Saudi Arabia),but also with the rest of the participating countries.
The accusations by Saudi Arabia ofIran's support for clashes on the Saudi-Yemeni border in 2009, as well as the outbreakof Shiites in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and in Bahrain inearly 2011, compelled the Gulf Cooperation Council to reaffirm the principle thataggression against one state of the Council is aggression against the wholeorganization225.Of course, the Council of Cooperation of the Arab Gulf countries is almost theonly multilateral regional platform for discussing security issues. And still, theorganization itself has a number of shortcomings that stand in the way of effective andfull-fledged functioning. Above all, paradoxically, a full-format dialogue within theframework of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Arabian Gulf ishampered by the fact that such states as Iran and Iraq are not part of it.
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