Friendlier hands across the Gulf

摘要

Relations between Iran's Shia revolutionaries and the rich, Sunni-domin-ated, American-protected Arabian monarchies of the Persian Gulf have never been easy. After America's invasion of Iraq in 2003, and Iran's election of the fire-breathing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president in 2005, they grew markedly worse. Arab fears of Iran's regional ambitions, its influence over Shia minorities and its nuclear programme have lately been matched by Iranian worries about the loyalty of its own Arabs and the possibility of an attack launched from the American bases that speckle the opposite shore.