Gulf Arabs give muted reaction to Ahmadinejad win

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Gulf Arabs give muted reaction to Ahmadinejad win
Mon Jun 15, 2009

DUBAI (Reuters) - Gulf Arab governments fearing growing Iranian power in the region gave a muted reaction to hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election win this week.

Semi-official media in Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy with no elected parliament, attacked the results as undemocratic.

"Falsifying the results is the easiest of tasks for a religious-security regime that does not believe in leaving to chance what it considers to be its right," wrote Abdul-Rahman al-Rashed in Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat.

Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV, which has had extensive coverage, said Iran had closed its office for a week without reason. "The Saudis are paranoid about Iran and have even more reason to be so after Ahmadinejad's reelection," said a Western diplomat in Riyadh. "They had no illusions that anything there would be a major policy change."

Ahmadinejad's landslide victory in Friday's election has been contested by his opponents, prompting street protests. The win has disconcerted Western powers trying to induce the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter to curb its nuclear program.

Tehran denies Western charges, backed by Arab states led by Saudi Arabia, of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

Saudi Arabia sees itself as the leader of Sunni Islam and fears Washington will recognize Iran as a regional power in an eventual rapprochement.

But many smaller Gulf states, keen to preserve good relations with Shi'ite minorities, have maintained traditionally friendly ties with Tehran.

The United Arab Emirates, which hopes to resolve a dispute over islands occupied by Iran, offered early congratulations to the winner in a statement on the official news agency.

Around 200 Iranians demonstrated outside the Iranian consulate in Dubai on Monday. Dubai has become a haven for Iranians escaping United Nations sanctions on Iran.

"The only reason I support Ahmadinejad's election win is his bold defiance of the United States with the nuclear program," said Suhail Al-Rajhi, an Omani secondary school teacher.

In Bahrain, whose Sunni royal family rules a Shi'ite majority, some Shi'ite commentators praised the Iranian leader.

"He managed to convey the image of modest and simple president, which appeals to people (in the region). If he was a candidate in any Arab country against a current president, the public would vote for him," wrote Kassim Hussain in al-Wasat.

(Additional reporting by Ulf Laessing, Luke Pachymuthu, Frederik Richter, Saleh al-Shaibany; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)

(Writing by Andrew Hammond; editing by Samia Nakhoul)
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