Gulf watching warily, the aftermath

"A few days on, the neighbor's conference in Kuwait seems to have followed the script: unsuccessful Iraqi and American pressure on the Arab states to send ambassadors and forgive debt, no noticable US-Iranian interaction on the margins (though Iranian FM Mottaki did take the opportunity to meet with Saudi FM Saud al-Faisal), some nice Arab words but no real actions to match. The really interesting developments aren't the predictable failures on those fronts, or the agreement on future meetings being highlighted by Condi Rice, but rather some potentially useful points of agreement on the Sadr question and on some intriguing subsequent interaction between Iraqis and Saudis.

The main success according to Iraqi and American officials was the agreement to hold the fourth neighbor's summit in Baghdad, and to include Iraq in relevant future GCC meetings. Hosting the meeting would indeed be a boost to whatever Iraqi government is then in office, if it comes off - though that would again likely depend on the security situation at the time. It would be much more productive if these meetings followed the suggestion of the Iraq Study Group (if I recall correctly) to establish ongoing, low-profile working groups instead of a series of high-profile photo opportunities where little gets done. But that assumes that getting something done is the point.

As for the GCC 6+2+1 formula, well, it's funny that most of the reporting has accepted Rice's spin that Iraq's potential invitation to future GCC meetings represents an important step in its integration into the region. Iran was ostentatiously invited to the last GCC meeting. What does that invitation then suggest?"
Abu Aardvark