“Showdown” In The Persian Gulf

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31724, 6 July 1968, Page 13

“Showdown” In The Persian Gulf

(N.Z. P.A. -Reuter—Copyright) ABU DHABI (Persian Gulf), July 5. Rulers of nine Persian Gulf States who have agreed to federate face a “showdown” when they meet for a third time in Abu Dhabi tomorrow.

A meeting on May 26 served only to split them into two distinct blocs—Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and four of the lesser States on one side, and Qatar, Dubai, and Ras Al Khaimab on the other.

The Bahrain bloc has proposed that Sheikh Zaid, of Abu Dhabi, by far the wealthiest ruler of the nine, should be President. The failure of the nine rulers to agree is being viewed with concern by their more powerful neighbours—including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq—all of whom have vital interests in the Persian Gulf. They feel they may be called , upon to take sides in the dispute, and thus jeopardise hard-won agreements between themselves on wider issues. Pressures on the nine British-protected States to federate increased when Britain announced her withdrawal from the Persian Gulf from 1971.

The immediate point of collision came when Sheikh Ahmad, ruler of Qatar, insisted that the meeting should immediately elect a first President of the federation, and choose a capital city. He proposed his father-in-law, Sheikh Raschid, ruler of Dubai, as President and Dubai City as the capital. Sheikh Isa, ruler of Bahrain, announced he was willing to withdraw his candidacy as President, and Bahrain’s claims for the capital, because his territorial disputes with Iran do not affect the other eight States.

There has been some concern at the “power vacuum” the withdrawal will cause.