GCC must play role in rebuilding Iraq

The GCC must address the question of its role in post-Saddam Iraq and the new regional framework if it wants to play an effective role in shaping the future economic and political outlook of the region, a political expert said here yesterday.

"The GCC should put itself through a process of strategic planning to determine the role it wants to play in constructing a new relationship with Baghdad and the role it wants to play in the emerging regional economic and security environment," said James Russell, a senior lecturer in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

Russel was speaking at the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) here. He said the GCC has an opportunity to forcefully assert itself in a constructive way to develop the new regional framework.

The region must show a sceptical international community where the organisation can function as a viable vehicle to help manage the region's political, economic and military relations.

He said the real challenge to the GCC and other countries is to define the framework for the new intra-regional relationships.

Russel said that regime change represents the dawn of a new era in the Gulf. The unfolding transition process with its concomitant friction and tension will necessarily be felt in all countries in the region and perhaps even beyond.