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Iranian leader visits Riyadh as tensions rise

THE Iranian president arrived in Riyadh yesterday on his first official visit to Saudi Arabia, a trip that many hope will help calm sectarian tensions threatening the Middle East as well as conflicts in Iraq and Lebanon.

King Abdullah, the Saudi monarch, received Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the airport, amid rapid developments that threaten to further isolate Iran because of its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

This weekend, senior diplomats from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are trying to reach agreement on new sanctions following an International Atomic Energy Agency report last month that Iran was expanding enrichment instead of suspending it.

At the same time, the US has been beefing up its military presence in the Gulf. Although Washington insists it has no plans to strike Iran, it has refused to rule it out.

Regionally, most Arab governments - which are overwhelmingly Sunni - have signalled impatience and worry over mostly Shi’ite Iran’s backing of co-religionists in Iraq and Lebanon, saying such support can only destabilise the region.

Iran is a strong backer of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which is striving to bring down the US and Saudi-backed Lebanese government. Iran also has close ties to Shi’ite political parties in Iraq, and Washington accuses it of backing Shi’ite militias there. Arab officials have pointed out that, while Shi’ites are in the majority in Iran and Iraq, they make up only 15% of the world’s Muslim population, and sectarian tensions could ultimately work against the groups which Iran supports.

Dawood al-Shirian, a Saudi journalist, said the visit should be viewed with optimism.

“Saudi Arabia is not a politically bankrupt country looking for a show for its foreign policies. If it didn’t know that the visit would add to its political achievements, it wouldn’t have been enthusiastic about it.”

Saudi newspapers, which are government-guided, struck a welcoming tone in editorials, saying they hoped Ahmadinejad’s visit signalled an Iranian willingness to revise its regional policies and work with, rather than against, Arab governments.

The Saudi Gazette said the challenge facing the two countries was how to unite the Islamic world, which was in danger of fragmenting because of sectarian tensions.

“How did we ever allow ourselves to slip into this situation? What good is our [the Islamic world’s] common cause if we waste our energies and resources on self-destruction rather than self-preservation?” the paper asked.

Failure to address these questions, it said, would mean the Islamic nation falling “further into the abyss of irrelevance”.

Ghassan Sharbil, the Lebanese editor of the Saudi-owned Al-Hayat daily newspaper, described the visit as “exceptional”.

He said: “Ahmadinejad can invest in this summit to calm down the Arab world, the Islamic world and the whole globe to protect Iran against isolation, the dangers of an American strike and a new resolution by the security council.”

Iranian analysts believe that Ahmadinejad will reach out to try to ease regional tensions.

Independent writer Saeed Leylaz said: “Since Ahmadinejad’s harsh rhetoric is partly responsible for the cooling in relations, he is taking this step to redress [the situation].”

But Leylaz doubts the talks will achieve a major breakthrough, predicting that the visit “may help Tehran and Riyadh to maintain a higher level of contacts to deal with regional issues”.

Television pundit Hasan Beheshtipour believes that the Iranian president will try to put to rest “misunderstandings” between the two countries regarding Iranian influence in Iraq, the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.

Nearly all Iranian newspapers simply published official reports that Ahmadinejad was visiting Saudi Arabia. Only one included some opinion in its report.

The daily Tehran-e-Emrooz, or Today’s Tehran, said Ahmadinejad’s administration was seeking improved ties with Saudi Arabia to increase chances of resolving the Middle East conflict without much US intervention and, at the same time, ease Saudi worries over Iran’s nuclear activities. “Trying to help improve cool relations between Saudi Arabia and Syria to resolve the Lebanese crisis ahead of the Arab League meeting is another goal of Ahmadinejad’s visit to Saudi.”