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Yelena Melkumyan, professor of the Department of Contemporary Oriental Studies of the RSUH
Power has changed in Egypt.
It faced an ambiguous reaction from the Gulf countries.
Saudi Arabia supported the overturn and supports the new authorities.
Qatar considered the overthrow of President Mursi illegal.
There is no unity on the question among members of the Cooperation Council.
The new situation is connected with the talks with Iran
and the signed accords in Geneva on the Iranian nuclear program.
It changes the situation in the Gulf region and the whole Middle East as well.
The Iranian factor influences the policies of the Gulf countries a lot.
In recent years relations between them have been very tense.
Saudi Arabia declared that Iran was its main rival in the region;
other countries of the Cooperation Council approached the possibility of an Iranian nuclear weapon
and the problem of Iranian policy,
meaning interference in the internal affairs of another country, very strictly.
And the acts of the organization state this directly.
Today Iran is trying to improve relations with the Gulf countries,
making efforts, but it faces a certain mistrust.
The Gulf countries are not sure that Iran will fulfil all its obligations
and reject the project of making a nuclear weapon.
This is one problem.
The second problem is the hegemonic views of Iran, which are obvious to these countries.
It tries to be not only a leader of the Gulf region, but also a leader of the whole Middle East.
Look at its role in the Syrian crisis, its role in Lebanon, its ties with Shiah organizations,
its role in developments in Bahrain, when riots took place there.
It shows that Iran tries to act through various Shiah extremist organizations
and destabilize internal political situation in these countries.
When Iran got an advance from the leading world powers, its position in the region changed.
On the one hand, the Gulf countries will make efforts to improve relations with Iran;
on the other hand, I point out that they are improving their security.
They conduct various events aimed at strengthening their security capacity and military power.
The new relations between the United States and Iran do not guarantee
that the USA will support Saudi Arabia, its partners in the Cooperation Council, and won’t support Iran.
In this new situation their positions became more complicated.
From this point of view, it is good for relations between Russia and the Arab countries.
The Arab countries understand that they have to have good relations with all the leading world powers.
And Russia is one of participants in the talks.
It is a participant of the talks on Iran; it is a member of the UN Security Council, and so on.
To have a high level of relations between Russia and the Arab countries,
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries should meet Russia halfway and improve these relations,
as it is in interests of the Gulf countries.